


Hearts Catch Fire

by ziamandbeyond



Series: Light It Up [1]
Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Falling In Love, Famous Zayn, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Long-Distance Friendship, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Non-Famous Liam, OT5 Friendship, Online Friendship, Online Romance, Twitter, lots of visuals, previously titled Heart's A Mess, reworked and reposted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-28 04:09:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6314680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ziamandbeyond/pseuds/ziamandbeyond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"I think I like him,” Zayn said but then he shook his head. “I do. I like him but it’s mad, right? I like him way more than I should for only ever seeing him once for five minutes a few months ago,” Zayn stopped for a minute looking over the balcony to watch the waves crashing to shore below them as he let out another breath of smoke. “It’s just, I don’t know if he feels the same way about me.”</i>
</p><p>Or Liam works at a theme park where he meets the world famous Zayn Malik while he's on holiday there and the two start talking daily on twitter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hearts Catch Fire

“Do you know where I can get a pack of cigarettes?” Zayn asked. It was a lot hotter than he’d been anticipating so he needed to stop by a food stand for a bottle of water. Florida wasn’t a place he’d found himself in during the middle of the summer before and he was seriously regretting the long sleeve shirt he’d put on to hide his tattoos.

“Oh my god,” the girl behind the counter shrieked when Zayn took off his sunglasses. He moved to wipe the sweat off his face as his security guard shook his head at the attention the shriek had caused around them.

“Yeah, I’m Zayn Malik,” he chuckled before putting the sunglasses back on. Being a part of a world famous boyband meant that Zayn was pretty busy for most of the year but when his schedule opened up for a few weeks he decided to go on a quick holiday with some of his friends, or at least that’s what he told everyone. Really he just needed time off and to get away from the spotlight that had been blinding him for the past two years. He was feeling burned out and the music didn’t feel true to him anymore. He hoped a vacation would help.

Even though roller coasters terrified him quite a bit, him and his mates decided it was time to check out all that Universal Studios had to offer. Especially the area that they had dedicated to superheroes. Zayn was pretty excited.

He wasn’t as excited for the security guards the park had appointed him, but at least they weren’t obvious and he understood why they were needed. Although his disguise seemed to be working pretty well, Zayn knew it could get crazy within seconds if he were to be discovered. It was worth putting up with some old guys following him and his friends if it meant things would be smoother and safer for everyone involved.

The girl behind the counter smiled at him and gave him his bottled water. “I can send you to my friend’s shop. It’s the closest place that sells cigarettes,” she said. Zayn thanked her for the information, but before he walked away she leaned over and whispered, “Just warning you that he’s a massive fan.” Zayn laughed and whispered a small ‘thanks’ as he and his friends made their way to the gift shop.

When Zayn looked around the shop he noticed that there weren’t any other customers. The security guys had told him there weren’t a lot of people projected to be there that day and Zayn was more and more grateful for that with each passing second. He pulled off his sunglasses and saw a guy standing behind one of the registers putting price stickers on a box full of keychains.

“So I was told that this is the place to buy cigarettes,” Zayn said a little nervously. He could hear the girl from the concession stand’s warning in his head. The boy looked up and smiled. Zayn smiled back when he saw the other boy’s eyes light up in recognition and braced himself for whatever might come next.

“It sure is!” he said before naming off the different types of cigarettes they had. Zayn wasn’t expecting that but he told the guy which one he wanted and watched him grab the cigarettes from behind the register and hand them over before reading off his total.

“Is it always this slow here?” he asked as he handed over his credit card and watched as the other man completed the transaction.

“I wish,” he laughed. “Come back in a few hours for the real party.”

Zayn was expecting something, anything but the reaction he was getting and he was confused by it. “You know, I was warned that you’re a massive fan,” Zayn said experimentally. He wasn’t really sure why he was even bringing it up. He was just expecting _something_ and was curious by the reaction he was getting.

“I am! I love you and your band and your music? I don’t know what you’re expecting me to do,” he said with a nervous laugh. “I mean, I didn’t card you for the cigarettes because I already know you’re older than 18,” he said with a shrug.

“I’m just surprised that you’re not asking for a picture or something,” he said with a laugh, still perplexed but also endeared by the guy across from him.

“I don’t normally ask guests for pictures when I’m working. Thought I’d stick to that. Plus, you’re not working so why would I? If I wasn’t working and this was some sort of fan event or something then maybe I would, but I like to be professional and generally like to respect other people’s privacy and what not,” the other boy said as though it should be obvious.

“What if I want to take a picture with you?” Zayn asked. He knew he should have just purchased the cigarettes and left, but there was something about the boy in front of him that made him want to talk some more. He wanted to make that smile stay on the boy’s face a little longer.

“Go ahead,” he laughed. “You’re not the first guest who’s wanted a picture with me, you know?” he finished with a wink.

Zayn fished his phone out of his pocket and handed it off to one of his friends as the guy came around from the other side of the counter. “I don’t doubt that cause you’re kind of fit,” Zayn said. “I’m sure you have your own fan club amongst the tourists,” he joked as he posed for the picture with a big smile on his face.

“Thank you,” Liam said after the picture. “I’m sure you’ve heard it before but you’re not so bad yourself,” he laughed.

“Thanks for the picture, Liam,” Zayn said reading the name off the boy’s nametag. “You’re not like many fans I’ve met.”

“You seem great, but I’m not into putting strangers on some sort of pedestal because they’ve been slapped with the label of _celebrity._ I may be a huge fan, but people are just people. I love your work but personally I don’t know you so I’m not going to pretend I do, or assume I know what you’re like as a person if I’ve never met you,” Liam said.

“Yeah, well now you have met me so what sort of opinion do you got?”

“I’d say you’re definitely nice and that this is one of the coolest experiences I’ve had working here.”

Zayn laughed, his head tilting back as the sound left his body. He was brought back to reality when he heard one of his friends cough nearby. Oh yeah, he was here to spend the day with them. When he looked up, one of them was staring angrily at him. “This has been great, but I think my friends are going to kill me if I don’t stop ignoring them,” he said.

Liam looked up and saw the not-too-pleased look that Zayn’s friend was throwing his way. “Yes, of course. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to keep you guys,” Liam said to the group.

“Don’t worry about it. It was a real pleasure to meet you, Liam. Maybe we’ll see each other again sometime.”

Liam laughed because that was a ridiculous notion. He doubted he’d ever talk to Zayn again after today, but he appreciated the sentiment just the same. “I’m going to your band’s concert in a few months so _I’ll_ definitely see _you_ ,” he said. They both knew this was probably going to be their first and last interaction. “It was nice meeting you too. Thanks for chatting with me, I’m sorry I kept you. I hope you guys have a wonderful day here.”

Liam waved as Zayn put his sunglasses back on, and he enthusiastically greeted the customer that had walked into the store as Zayn and his entourage left.

It was a hot day, but Zayn and his friends had a great time at the theme park. They went to the Wizarding World complaining about how hot it was while watching fake snow catch the sunlight on the top of the buildings surrounding them.

They took fun pictures with Spider-Man and some of the other characters around the parks like Opitmus Prime. His friends even talked him onto a couple of roller coasters. Overall, it had been a really good day.

He was recognized a couple of times but not enough to cause an issue. Usually a picture or autograph made whoever had approached happy enough to leave him and his friends alone after that. He even signed some things for the security guards that had followed them around all day so they could bring it home to their younger children. A lot had happened and yet he kept thinking back to the conversation that he’d had with Liam. Just the thought made Zayn smile.

A few days later, Zayn found himself bored on a plane full of sleeping passengers. Unfortunately, he was headed back to a strictly scheduled life and limited creative freedom. To pass the time he started going through the pictures in his phone from his trip and came across the picture of him and Liam in his camera roll. He decided to tweet it out before he managed to fall asleep for the rest of the flight home.

 

It had been a long day at work and Liam was waiting at wardrobe to leave them his uniform when he decided to check his twitter. He figured he should post something at some point, but things seemed to be a bit more boring than usual since he met Zayn Malik a few days ago.

He scrolled through his feed passing through tweets from the bands he followed and past the silly things his friends were saying before he reached a tweet he wasn’t expecting to see.

 _Had an amazing day_ **_@UniversalORL_ ** _with my boys and big thanks to Liam for being awesome._

Attached to the tweet was the photo that Zayn’s friend had taken of them. Liam started coughing when he saw it, shocked. He saved the photo to his phone and retweeted Zayn’s tweet with shaking hands.

In less than five minutes, Liam’s phone seemed to permanently be set to vibrate as twitter notifications poured in, so Liam decided to answer some of the questions being asked while he was killing time before he could go home for the day.

He ended the conversation by saying that he probably wouldn’t be talking about his interaction with Zayn anymore once his mentions became more about getting Zayn to follow them than anything else.

Liam sighed and put his phone away before handing off his uniform and starting the drive home from work. It was a nice day so he rolled down his windows and let the Florida heat fill his car as he turned up the radio. A One Direction song came on just as he got stuck at a stop light. It put a smile on Liam's face and he decided to sing along and maybe sort of dance as well. The people in the cars around him were giving him funny looks but it didn't faze him. He'd been putting up with those judgmental looks ever since he started liking the band. So what if he was older and not exactly the teenage girl demographic that the band usually attracted? He liked their music and at the end of the day, it made him happy and that’s all that mattered.

Liam could still hear his phone vibrating in the seat next to him on his drive home and he figured that once he got settled into his apartment that he’d have to change the notification settings if he ever wanted to sleep again.

Before he jumped into the shower he changed the settings on his phone to only notify him when someone he followed interacted with him. Turning on some music, he let the warm water of his shower wash away all the sweat and stress of the day. Once clean, relaxed, and clothed Liam grabbed his laptop and settled into bed. He decided to open twitter and noticed that he had gained a lot of new followers, about six hundred more than he had earlier that morning. He also noticed a new notification telling him that he had a DM from someone. He opened up the window and was shocked to see something from Zayn.

It was hard for Zayn to wake up the next morning after staying up as late as he did. In all honesty, he had meant to go to bed early for their first day of tour rehearsals but he had sort of lost track of the time when he was talking to Liam.

As soon as he stepped into their rehearsal space, the boys attacked, giving Zayn a group hug that made him laugh.

It was Niall that had brought up Zayn's tweet saying, "I saw that picture you posted. I didn't know you were going to America."

"Yeah, it wasn't exactly planned, but it all worked out and I had a great time. Wasn't really recognized or anything."

"Who was that bloke in the picture with you?" Niall asked.

"He's a fan, but he didn't ask for the picture. It was weird. I don't know how to explain it but I just really liked talking to him. I ended up following him on twitter and talked to him some more last night. He seems like, super chill."

Niall dropped the conversation as they focused more on the stage blocking they were meant to be learning for their tour. They were going to be in stadiums this go around so there was a lot more area to cover. Zayn had never been one for working out so he tried to ignore the cramp in his side as the others handled the physicality of it all while barely breaking a sweat.

A few hours later, they took a small break. They were meant to be grabbing some water or catching their breath but everyone seemed to have the same idea as they pulled out their phones.

Zayn had missed these guys while they had been separated. They all had lives outside of their band but they were like brothers at this point and they couldn’t go too long without giving each other a hard time. He knew that even though he wanted to strangle them sometimes, that they would always have his back.

Zayn saw the notification cross his screen and looked to see what Niall had written. His eyes widened when he saw that Niall had singled Liam out over the social network. His head snapped up and he yelled, “Niall, what the hell!” to the blonde as the other two other boys laughed.

Putting his phone down on the floor next to him, Zayn sighed and stretched out on the ground. He knew he never should have told the other guys about the boy that had intrigued him on his quick trip to America.

Zayn was startled from his spot on the floor when he heard Niall’s booming laugh echo through the room. “I like this guy,” he said out loud. Zayn was confused and rolled over to see Niall on his phone so Zayn picked up his own to see what was going on. He opened twitter and saw the conversation between Niall and Liam.

“Niall, you twat! You woke him up?” he sighed.

“Whoa is it my fault that the kid doesn’t silence his phone before going to sleep? No.”

Zayn sighed and chuckled, "No, but you have no business tweeting him in the first place."

"I followed him before you did. Who’s got no business tweeting him now?” Niall said sticking out his tongue.

“What? Really?” he asked quite shocked.

“Yeah, saw him promoting our newest album once and followed him. Of course, I didn’t realize this until you were telling us about him and I looked him up and twitter told me I was already following him, but that’s beside the point.”

Before Niall had even finished talking, Zayn had opened up his messages with Liam.

“Niall! Liam’s only following you for your looks! Told me so himself,” Zayn yelled across the room.

Niall laughed and pulled out his phone before saying, “He wouldn’t be the only one.”

Zayn got up for their second day of rehearsals and checked twitter on his way to the studio. Liam had tweeted something about a meeting he had to go to with a hope that he doesn’t get fired. The sinking feeling in Zayn’s stomach told him that it was because of his tweet. He was kicking himself for not thinking about the consequences before he posted that picture of Liam. He probably wouldn’t have found Liam’s account if he hadn’t, but if Liam got fired because of him he’d probably stop talking to him.

He worried about it all through rehearsal getting yelled at by the choreographer a few times for being in his own world and not following the directions he was giving him. He apologized and tried to get back into it but only went through the motions halfheartedly.

When they were finally done with rehearsals for the day, Zayn grabbed his phone and sent a message to Liam telling him to let him know how his day went once he got off of work. Zayn just really needed to be reassured that he didn’t accidentally get him fired.

Zayn’s phone stayed silent until 9pm when he heard his twitter notification go off. He opened up the app as soon as he noticed that it had been Liam’s name on the screen.

 

 

 

> **_@liam_payno_** _: “I’m an ordinary guy. Burning down the house!”_ ** _#partytime_** **_pic.twitter.com/jfhDGT_**
> 
> **_ _ **

Zayn saw the selfie Liam had posted right before he decided it was time to go to bed. He couldn’t help but smile when the picture loaded and Liam’s giant smile filled his screen. He most definitely did _not_ save the picture to his phone. A smile like that was contagious and Zayn knew he would smile every time he saw it.

The next day, Zayn heard Niall’s phone go off and watched as the blonde moved to check it. They were back at Zayn’s apartment now that their rehearsals were over for the day. Zayn had decided to nap on the couch while Niall sat in the chair near him watching a football game.

“Hmm. I guess that answers that question then,” Niall said. “Your guy’s causing quite the fuss on twitter.”

“My guy? Your phone just went off. Do you get his tweets sent to your phone?” Zayn asked.

“No, but my friend sent me something. I just saw Liam’s thing when I got on," Niall said frowning at his phone.

“What happened?” Zayn asked sitting up. The frown on Niall’s face was unsettling.

“Not much. He just retweeted a picture of him kissing some guy. Not a big deal or anything,” Niall said taking a bite of food flicking a look to Zayn with a small smile.

“What?” he asked reaching for the phone. Niall handed it over and Zayn made his way to Liam's profile to see what was going on.

Zayn clicked on the picture and figured it must have been from the party Liam went to last night. He had to admit that he felt a little jealous at the image of Liam with another guy, but he felt even more disappointed in the response others had to it.

 

 

 

> _"_ **_@fangirl5ever:_ ** _Is that your boyfriend?" no, he’s not my boyfriend. he’s my best friend. His boyfriend actually took the photo lol_  
>  _"_ **_@1dbabe_ ** _: are you gay?" everyone’s a little gay._  
>  _"_ **_@directioner4lyfe: @liam_payno @zaynmalik_ ** _and_ **_@NiallOfficial_ ** _don’t need a fag like you in their life." 1. I think they can choose 4 themselves 2. I don’t need someone like u following me.  
>  _**_@1Dirtbag:_ ** _“why are you kissing a boy?” because I can?  
>  _**_@liam_payno_ ** _: If you can’t handle a picture of two boys kissing you may want to remove yourself from the internet._

 

It was clear what had caused the frown on Niall’s face and it made Zayn angry that his fans were treating someone like that over something as trivial as a kiss. It didn't even give Zayn the chance to feel relieved that Liam said it was a joke and that the guy he was kissing wasn't his boyfriend.

He threw Niall’s phone back at him and picked up his own from the table so that he could message Liam.

Direct Messages > with Liam Payne:

 

> **Look at you starting drama all on your own. I’m so proud ;’)  
> ** I’m glad you’re amused. This has literally been the most infuriating morning ever. I’m done with these people.  
>  **I know how you feel.  
> ** ugh. remind me never to become famous lol :P  
>  **It’s not that bad all the time. Sorry for all the backlash. I know it’s hard to deal with sometimes.  
> ** it’s fine. it’s just...so what if I’m gay or not, like, why do they care? They don’t know me.  
>  to say that I shouldn’t be friends with someone just because they think they know me after seeing one photo is ridiculous.  
>  it’s not like we were making out or anything. it was a joke.  
>  sorry. that tweet just really upset me for some reason.  
>  I used to get picked on a lot as a kid and it’s just bringing all that back, ya know?  
>  **I’m sorry. You definitely shouldn’t let it upset you. I still think you’re awesome :)**

Zayn tapped out of the messages and composed a new tweet. It was a simple hashtag but he hoped that Liam would see it and understand it and feel a little bit better.

 

> **_@zaynmalik: #cheerupbatman_ **

He returned to his messages and double checked that he was in the right place before sending a new message to Liam

 

> **Plus, and you can’t tell anyone this, I’m gay so I wouldn’t care or judge if you are.  
> ** Oh, wow. Thanks for trusting me enough to tell me.  
>  Like, I don’t know if I’m gay or not? It seems kind of silly to say that as an adult, doesn’t it?  
>  I’ve never been in a relationship with a man but I think about it sometimes?  
>  It’s weird. I don’t know. I just don’t care too much about labels.  
>  There are guys I’ve wanted to be with.  
>  But it’s laughable that people would think I’m with the guy in the picture.  
>  His boyfriend took the picture. If that’s not a huge ‘we’ll never be in a relationship’ then I don’t know what is.  
>  In fact, I totally expect to be the best man at their wedding.  
>  **It’s not silly. Sexuality can be a confusing thing at times. It doesn’t change who you are as a person. I’m here if you ever need someone to talk to about it.  
> ** Thank you, Zayn. You’re actually the best.  
>  Haha. OMG. #cheerupbatman is trending. Is that your doing?  
>  Wow. Thank you. I actually can’t stop smiling right now. haha.  
>  **No problem. In thanks you can dress up as batman and join us on stage when we have our concert in Florida.  
> ** I hope that’s a joke.  
>  **It’s not if you’d actually do it! I expect the voice and everything.  
>  ****Batman's my favorite superhero so I'll be a tough critic. Better start practicing! ;)**

Niall laughed making Zayn look up from his phone. “What’re you laughing at?” he asked.

“Harry got involved,” was all he said so Zayn sighed and pulled up Harry’s twitter.

 

> **_@HarryStyles:_ ** _Be nice to nice._ **_#cheerupbatman  
>  _****_@liam_payno_ ** _: Can’t stop smiling. The boys of_ **_@onedirection_ ** _sure know how to cheer a guy up!_ **_#BestBandEver_**

Zayn laughed when he opened the picture to see a picture of Liam in a batman cowl.

At the start of One Direction’s new tour, the number of messages Liam and Zayn would exchange each day drastically dropped. As Zayn and the guys ended up in a different country every night the time difference was a lot more prominent and made it harder to talk. They’d message each other when their schedules allowed but with Liam’s classes starting up, and work as well, their conversations were a bit slow.

There seemed to be negativity every time Liam tweeted one of the guys or if they tweeted him. People didn’t like that all four boys were following him now. He wanted to say that the hate didn’t get to him, but with all the pressure and stress he was currently facing with his last semester of classes it had started to impact him.

He loved getting to talk to the guys whenever he was having particularly stressful days just because they were good at making him forget about it all. They all seemed pretty cool. It still felt incredibly surreal that they would even speak to him, but it felt even stranger that he hadn’t met any of them in person before because they all felt like friends he’d had for a while.

He had gotten to know them quite a bit for the couple of months they’d all been talking. Liam would often send Harry new music that he thought would be up his alley. When Harry tweeted that people should follow Liam if they wanted great music recs, Liam received hundreds of messages asking why Liam was making Harry promote him.

He’d send links to Louis about interesting tv shows and theories about the shows they both watched, like The Walking Dead. However, when Liam sent a link to Louis about a charity he’d recently learned about that helped parents with chronically ill children pay medical bills he was berated for getting attention and money by taking advantage of Louis’ soft side. Never mind that Liam himself had a chronic illness when he was growing up and his parents could have used the help and support that the organization offered.

Niall and him always joked about sport matches and they’d both exchange some funny messages to each other after having a few drinks. Once Niall quoted Liam from a message he sent after a few drinks while watching a tennis match and people accused him of only watching sports to kiss up to Niall.

Zayn was different though, Liam talked to Zayn about everything under the sun; his hopes, his fears, that new marvel film that just came out, the disappointment of DC’s weak cinema game. Zayn knew it all. He knew about Liam’s illness growing up, the bullying, what he was studying in school, his five-year plan. Just as Liam knew about the things Zayn usually didn’t talk about in interviews: why he got into music, how the stuff they were making as One Direction didn’t feel like him anymore, how he felt about becoming a spokesperson for an entire race and religion without wanting to.

Everything he talked about with them felt very real and normal. It was as if he’d known these guys forever and they weren’t some famous boyband touring around the world. However, people kept putting Liam down because of the relationships he'd created with them. If they hadn't become so close, Liam would have questioned whether or not the negativity was worth the friendships.

They were finally scheduled to be in the same continent so Liam made sure to send a message to Zayn when they touched down in North America to welcome him to the “better hemisphere.”

 

 

> **Haha. That’s debatable, but it’s nice that our time zone difference isn’t as crazy as before.  
> ** **Have you gotten a phone I can text you on yet?  
> ** No. It’ll happen. I’ve just been trying to save my money since I don't know if I'm going to land a paid internship or not.  
>  **How very responsible of you, Liam.  
> ** Yeah, I can always go back to babysitting my neighbor's daughters if I need to but hopefully I'll get a 'real' job soon.  
>  **Have you figured out where you’re going to intern? I still vote London ;)  
> ** hahaha maybe I will! I don’t know. I’ll apply around first and do some research.  
>  **Good man.  
> ** **Speaking of good men, have you given any more thought to batman? you're running out of time!  
> ** Yeah, still thinking. I think I need to talk to the other guys before I decide.  
>  **That doesn’t sound good at all! What are you up to?  
> ** Nothing! I just want to make sure they’d be okay with it. I’m getting really excited for the show though.  
>  I'm bringing the girls I babysat since they're the one's that got me into your music.  
>  They're pretty excited too haha.  
>  **You should bring them backstage after the show to meet us!**  
>  Are you sure? You know that's not something I expect or anything right?  
>  **I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't sure and last I checked I was the one that brought it up :P**  
>  Okay, thanks! That will make their year :)  
>  Also, If you guys have any free time while you’re in town then we should hang out.  
>  Not to brag but I have a pretty awesome entertainment set up. Movie nights are awesome at my place.  
>  You, the guys, and the crew are welcome to come over if y’all want to/have the time.    
>  **Yeah, that sounds great although I think the boys were talking about a beach day.  
> ** **You can join us and then maybe we can all go over to yours for a movie after, yeah?  
> ** Yeah, and we can wait to plan stuff until we’re closer to the actual concert too.  
>  I have the whole week off so that I can look for places to live around the internships I'm applying to.  
>  I want to have the essentials covered once I figure out where I’m going for my internship.  
>  **Are you looking forward to moving out? Niall tells me all the stories of your crazy neighbor.  
> ** Yeah, it'll be nice to not have to deal with the noise anymore, but I'm going to miss the entertainment it provided.  
>  Niall and I might not ever know how everything plays out now.  
>  **You two are way too close. I’m starting to feel left out.  
> ** Aww, you’re still my number 1! You’re like the first and last person I talk to on a daily basis.  
>  **Yeah, you too. Although I have to say that I don’t really mind.  
> ** **In fact, I’d say that I prefer it. Just don’t tell my mum.  
> ** I won’t. haha the other guys say that you’re impossible to be around until you talk to me or if you haven’t heard from me in a long time.  
>  **I’m gonna have to have another conversation with them about keeping things to themselves.  
> ** Does that mean it’s true?  
>  **Yes.  
> ** Good. Me too. Glad I’m not the only one :P  
>  **You’re not. I can’t even tell you how happy it makes me that we’re finally in the same country right now.  
> ** I know! It almost feels like we didn’t take advantage of our time together last time you were here even though we didn’t know each other.  
>  I can’t even process that we didn’t know each other. It feels like I’ve known you forever.  
>  **Yes! Exactly. We definitely need to take advantage of it this time while I’m here.  
> ** **How far away is the beach from where you live?  
> ** It’s only about an hour away depending on traffic. I know some nice beaches that aren’t tourist traps that we can go to but it might be a little bit farther.  
>  **Road trip! You, me and the lads. We’ll have a few days off in Florida specifically to enjoy the sun. It’ll be like a mid-tour holiday.  
> ** **I think the guys wanted to try to go to Universal too. They were mad at me for going without them.  
> ** Haha well I guess I could save my tickets for you guys :P  
>  **THANK YOU LIAM! IT’S APPRECIATED! YOU’RE COMING WITH US BY THE WAY.  
>  ** Okay lol

Liam smiled and wished the boys luck on their first North American stop.

 

 

> **_@liam_payno:_ ** _Wishing my boys a great show tonight!_
> 
> _ _
> 
> **_@louis91fan: @liam_payno_ ** _Leach! Stop using them for their fame!_  
>  **_@liam_payno: @louis91fan_ ** _how am I doing that? what am I gaining aside from lovely comments from ppl like u?_  
>  **_@liam_payno: @louis91fan_ ** _I’m just messing with my friends. it’s a joke. it doesn’t need your negativity._  
>  **_@louis91fan: @liam_payno_ ** _you barely talk to them! you really have the nerve to call them your friends?_  
>  **_@liam_payno: @louis91fan_ ** _okay. you win. I’m not tryin to fight with you. we’re on the same team. we’re both fans of their music._  
>  **_@liam_payno_ ** _: if you follow me just because you want to hate me for my occasional tweets to some guys in a band then feel free to unfollow.  
>  _**_@liam_payno_ ** _: I never asked y’all to follow me and I’ve never asked anyone to ask people to follow me either.  
>  _**_@liam_payno:_ ** _I’m sick of the hate so leave your drama and negativity out of my mentions._

It only took a few minutes before Liam grabbed his car keys and headed to the store. Time for a new phone, one that he could use to text his friends when they were out of the country. He looked at all the phones the store had to offer and specifically asked the sales guy about the iMessage feature and texting friends internationally with it before he bought the thing. He sighed as he handed over his credit card but he was happy that he’d finally be able to text Zayn now.

When he got home he set up the phone and downloaded everything that he’d had on his last phone. He knew the basics of the phone. Most of his friends owned them, but it was still going to take him a little while before he got the hang of it.

 

> **_@liam_payno:_ ** _This iPhone is going to take some getting used to. Lost all my #’s. Txt me if u have my # or message me if you need it._

Liam cross posted his tweet to facebook and watched as his phone exploded with incoming text messages filled with people’s names. His sister thankfully gave him all the family members numbers he’d need since most of them didn’t have a way to be contacted on social media sites. He spent the rest of the night programming his new phone and adding 4 new numbers that he hadn't been able to text before.

As soon as classes ended on Friday afternoon the entire campus seemed to be in the middle of a massive celebration. Liam was originally going to stay in for the night but when his friends asked him if he wanted to join them for karaoke he thought it would be a nice break after the crazy midterms week. He changed into some fresh clothes and made his way to the bottom of his apartment complex to wait for the person that offered to be DD for the night. When he got a text telling him there was a bit of traffic that his friends had to make it through he decided to check twitter.

Liam’s twitter had been silent for a few weeks while he navigated his classes and the midterms that he’d had. He didn’t want the stress the site had been causing him to mess him up after a long semester of hard work, especially since he still had to work at Universal.  

Bad days were something he couldn’t really afford while working at a theme park. The people he saw were usually on vacation and had spent thousands of dollars to have a good time, not to deal with a moody cashier.

He knew he had to stay away from the website when his boss confronted him about his recent testiness. Zayn was the deciding factor in his decision to take a break from the social network. Apparently he wanted to step away from the site too.

 

> _**I’ve been asking you to buy a phone that I can text you on because it’s been annoying to log on all the time and see people trash talking you. I care, and I want to say something, but I’m not allowed. It’s infuriating. Now that we can text, I don’t have to go on that thing anymore.** _

Now that Liam was free of the school stress, however, he felt he could at least log on to twitter again without having a mental breakdown.

He caught up on some of the tweets he’d missed, retweeting a few of his favorites just as his friends pulled up. He read through his mentions while he was in the car and was glad to see that his mentions weren’t as bad as they were before his break. There was a lot less hate attached to his name but there were a lot of rumors that him and the guys weren’t friends anymore. Liam decided it was best to just leave it alone and put his phone in his pocket when his friend turned up the radio.

The bar was crowded when they got there but Liam’s friends managed to snag a table while he put down the first round of songs they all wanted to sing since the line was long. Once he got back to the group, he offered to hold the table for them so his friends could go order the first round of drinks. He looked around the bar watching the person who was currently singing on the stage. They were singing a slow song that didn’t really hold his interest so he pulled out his phone composing a text to Zayn.

 

 

> _Karaoke tonight to celebrate the end of midterms. What should I sing?_  
>  **_JT.  
>  _ ** _Hmmm. Yeah, that sounds like a good idea actually. Can't go wrong with JT.  
>  _ **_Precisely. So? How’d exams go?_ **

Before Liam could respond, someone sat down at the table with him. He looked up and saw that his friends were back.

“On your phone again, Payno? Are you talking to that popstar of yours again?” his friend asked.

“You know it’s not like that,” Liam said.

"Not like what? Not like you've had a crush on him for the past few months?" someone said as the other guys at the table chuckled.

Liam shook his head and grabbed one of the drinks they brought him. He wanted to deny it, but he also knew that they weren't completely off base. Liam just sent a tweet with a sigh before he put his phone away so he could focus on his friends and let all his stress and feelings for popstars go for the night.

 

> **_@liam_payno_ ** _: Midterms are over so I’m_ **_#bringingsexyback_ ** _! Karaoke time!!_

The line was longer than Liam had expected and by the time he got up to sing his first song choice he’d already gone through a few drinks. He missed his first cue to start singing but the drinks allowed him to just laugh it off instead of getting upset about it. He quickly found his place and sang the song, his friends whistling and cheering him on.

He was happy to get back to the table once the song was over. He wasn’t the biggest fan of getting on stage even though singing was something he liked to do. It was just something he felt more comfortable doing in the privacy of his own living room. His friends all gave him high fives when he got back to the table and congratulated him by buying another round of drinks.

Just as Liam and his friends clinked their new drinks together in cheers, someone tapped Liam on the shoulder. He looked over to see a girl standing behind him with a pleasant smile on her face.

“Hey, I’m Kate, I just wanted to tell you that you were amazing up there,” she told him.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Liam,” he said holding out his hand to shake. “Thank you.”

“I was wondering if you wanted to get out of here and duet?” she said, leaning into him and whispering in his ear.

“Oh,” Liam chuckled, leaning back a little in shock at her forwardness. “You seem like a lovely person, but I’m just not interested, sorry.”

She just shrugged and headed back to her group of friends. Liam turned back to his friends who were staring at him like he had grown a third head.

“What?” he asked.

“Dude, she was hot! Why the hell did you turn her down?” and “Tell us again how you're not crushing on that popstar” were muttered around the table.

Liam just shrugged. “I wasn’t feeling it,” he said while he pulled out his phone to finally answer Zayn’s question now that his friends were preoccupied with their drinks, each other, and the people singing on stage.

 

 

> _Exams went okay. I think I passed everything._  
>  ********_Even that class you were freaking out about?_  
>  _I didn’t know there were so many laws involved in music but I think I did okay_  
>  _At least I know how to avoid getting sued now._  
>  __**Things get tricky once you start getting into the fine print of this industry...royalties, copyrights, etc. We have multiple lawyers on our team.**  
>  _It's way more complicated than I ever thought. That's for sure!_  
>  _I shouldn’t have waited so long to take the class, but at least I’m halfway done with it now.  
>  _ **_Exams are definitely one thing I’ve been okay with missing out on :P  
>  _ ** _That’s just because you’re too good for exams._

“Liam! Stop texting that boy and put the phone away. We’re celebrating!” Liam jumped and looked up at all of his friends staring at him. “Sorry,” he muttered typing out a quick text to Zayn and putting his phone up for the rest of the night.

There was a lot of pain when Liam woke up the next morning, the light flowing in through his blinds hurt his eyes and he immediately reached for the bottle of water he left on his nightstand the night before. Getting out of bed was a slow process, but he eventually made it to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, some eggs, and aspirin.

When the pounding in his head started to ease up, Liam searched for his phone. Zayn was usually the first person he’d text every morning, but when he checked his phone he saw a missed text from one of the guys he’d gone out with last night that concerned him.  

 

> **_Don’t hate me.  
> _** _What happened?  
>  _ **_Check twitter.  
>  _** ******_I swear I had no idea this would happen._**

Liam’s heart started to beat a little faster as he pulled up twitter. He was really nervous to see what had happened since he'd finally gotten the whole twitter thing under control. Liam followed Harry's advice and stopped responding to the haters, besides it had given him so much more satisfaction to block the people sending him negative tweets. People had finally started to be nicer to him or had stopped following him when he stopped publicly talking to the guys and he really didn't want whatever happened between last night and this morning to bring any of that hate back.

He opened up the app to find out what happened and saw that there was a video of him singing the song he chose last night. He groaned and watched the video of him singing, “I see that sexy look in your eyes, and I know, we ain’t friends anymore. If we walk down this road, we’ll be lovers for sure. So tonight kiss me like it’s do or die, and take me to the other side.” Liam had quite a few drinks before he’d gotten on stage but he was just glad his voice didn’t sound terrible now that he was sober. He was glad he hadn't gone with a One Direction song like his friends had suggested. He could only imagine the response that would have gotten.

This was probably the first time that Liam had been fully aware that he had four popstars following him. Four people who sang professionally and, to put it mildly, were really successful with it. He didn’t think they’d be super critical of him and his voice, but he was hoping they wouldn’t see it at all. Unfortunately, he saw a lot of people mentioning the others guys in links to the video so he knew those chances were slim.

He braved his mentions and saw that a lot of people were being positive about the whole thing. In fact, most of the tweets people were sending him were compliments or questions. He decided he’d try to answer a few of the ones he saw pop up a several times.

 

> **_“@liam_payno do you want to be a singer?”  
> _** _Not professionally. Think I’ll stick to karaoke & my shower._  
>  ********_“@liam_payno you sing really well!”_  
>  _Thanks! I’m studying music so I’ve taken a few lessons._  
>  ********_“@liam_payno you’re studying music but you don’t want to be a singer?”_  
>  _Yeah, I’d like to produce someday._  
>  ****_“_ **@liam_payno that’s so cool! how far are you in school?”**  
>  _Almost done! Just applied for a few internships for some cool companies...hopefully that leads to a job.  
>  _ **_“@liam_payno will you post more videos of you singing?”  
>  _** _probably not. I didn’t even want this one out there lol. maybe I’ll post some of the songs I’ve remixed someday._

Liam stopped answering questions when he got a text from Zayn busting his hope of the guys never seeing the video.

 

> **_Liam! Why didn’t you tell me you could sing like that?  
> _** _Because I don’t consider myself much of a singer._  
>  _Trust me it took several drinks for me to get up and do that._  
>  ********_Haha did you do what I suggested?_  
>  _Yeah, but that was after even more drinks and the video is quite embarrassing._  
>  ********_There’s a video ?!!!_  
>  _No._  
>  **_Send it to me, Li. Pleaseeee :)  
>  _ ** _I hate you.  
>  _ ********_You do not._

Liam sighed as he searched his phone for the video of him singing “ _SexyBack_ ” it had taken place a lot later in the evening when he had been significantly more intoxicated. The alcohol in his system giving him more confidence than he should have had. He was serious throughout the entire performance trying to be as sexy as he could. He made it through the song, but the end of the video was just him laughing as the audience of the karaoke bar applauded his drunken antics. Liam thought the video was incredibly embarrassing but he decided to send it to Zayn anyway.

 

> _I’m really embarrassed by this. I’m never doing karaoke again.  
>  _ _Or at least never letting anyone film it._

It wasn’t before too long that he’d gotten a text from Louis.

 

> **_What’d you do to Zayn?  
> _** _Nothing? I just sent him a video of me doing the artist he suggested I sing at karaoke last night._  
>  ********_Oh. What was it? That Jason Durelo one going around the internet?_  
>  _Ugh. you know about that too? I’m killing my friend. Sorry I won’t be able to make the concert next week, I might be in jail._  
>  ********_We all know about the video, mate. It’s really good though so don’t kill anyone. We’ll be put off if you don’t come to the show._  
>  _Thank you. That wasn’t the video I sent him though. He asked me to sing JT so I did SexyBack._  
>  **_That’s great haha you probably got him all hot and bothered.  
>  _ ** _Shut up, I did not.  
>  _ ********_Whatever you want to tell yourself, Payno._

Liam was taking his break during work the next day when he got a text from Niall. Apparently him and the other guys wanted to surprise Zayn by having Liam come to one of the shows that was a couple days before the one he was supposed to meet them at.

Liam, Niall, Louis, and Harry ended up in a group message to plan the whole thing. They definitely wanted Liam to come out on stage, but Liam told them he wasn't really one for the attention. Liam wasn't going to bring up the batman scheme Zayn had come up with, but apparently he’d told Louis about it the week before. The boys jumped at the idea and decided that Liam would come out as Batman when they took a break in the show to talk to the fans for a little bit.  

He eventually gave into the plan when the others said that it would really please Zayn. He didn't think he'd get much sleep until then as he looked at the email he'd been sent containing all the information he needed to be let backstage. Liam thought it must be a mix between nerves and excitement. He was happy that he'd finally be meeting them all in person, but he was worried that they might not like him as much in person as they did via text. When he drifted off to sleep that night it was to thoughts of how crazy everything had been since Zayn walked into his gift shop four months ago and how ready he was to see him again.

The boys started to get antsy only a few hours after they arrived in Florida. There was a beautiful ocean view outside their windows, and while the beach was an option, they all decided to go their separate ways for the day once they got everything settled in their rooms.

Harry wanted to hit up a local concert for a band he liked when he learned that they had a gig in town, Niall wanted to go enjoy the sunshine by playing a game of golf with some of the crew, and Louis wanted to stay in and watch a movie. Zayn decided to hang back at the hotel with Louis and figured a movie couldn’t hurt.

They decided on Louis’ room for their movie and got themselves settled in Louis’ bed before buying a movie to watch. They argued between Spider-Man and Transformers for a little before Zayn gave up and let Louis choose.

Zayn’s eyes started to feel heavy about half way through the film. Next thing he knew, his phone was alerting him to a text and the tv was off. Louis was still sitting next to him only now he was checking his email instead of watching the film.

“How long was I asleep?” he asked.

“About two hours. Must have been tired since you fell asleep during Spider-Man so I thought I’d let you sleep.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Was that your phone that went off?”

“Nah, it was yours. Think Liam texted you,” Louis said.

Zayn quickly sat up and started feeling around the bed for his phone.

 

> _I’ve been told that we are currently in the same state right now! Only a few more days!  
>  _ **_Yeah, I can’t wait !!_ **

Zayn got the sudden urge for a cigarette so he jumped out of the bed looked around the room for the pack Louis was sure to have before he made his way to the balcony of Louis’ room. Just as Zayn sat down outside, Louis opened the door to join him, holding the lighter that Zayn had left in the room.

“So how’s it going with Liam?” Louis asked handing Zayn the lighter.

“Really good, thanks,” Zayn smiled leaning forward to grab the lighter.

Louis sat down next to Zayn and asked, “So he’s coming to the show on Friday?”

“Yeah,” Zayn said looking down and putting a cigarette in his mouth, bringing the lighter up to bring it to life. He took a deep pull from the cigarette and let the smoke fill his lungs before he breathed it out in a sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Louis asked lighting a cigarette of his own. Smoke breaks had always been the time that they talked to each other the most about personal things going on in their lives. Their fears, their dreams, they were the things Louis and Zayn shared over these small breaks from their insane lives for the past few years.

“Nothing, I’m just nervous. I think I like him,” Zayn said but then he shook his head. “I do. I like him but it’s mad, right? I like him way more than I should for only ever seeing him once for five minutes a few months ago,” Zayn stopped for a minute looking over the balcony to watch the waves crashing to shore below them as he let out another breath of smoke. “It’s just, I don’t know if he feels the same way about me. He told me before that he’s not gay.”

“Now you’re just doubting yourself. You told me before that he’s said there are guys he wants to be with. I don’t know but that sounds almost like an invitation if you ask me.”

“I never told you that,” Zayn said looking up at Louis wondering if Liam had told him that.

“Oh, yeah. You forgot to sign out of twitter once,” Louis laughed as Zayn pushed him. “Really though, he seems like a great guy and I’m looking forward to meeting him in person. Just know that you’re going to have to share him between the rest of us. I’m pretty sure Niall has already claimed him as his best friend.”

“It’s kind of insane how much he’s infiltrated my life already though, isn’t it? You’re all friends with him and it’s not really like that with any of our other friends,” Zayn said.

Louis laughed as he put his cigarette out. “I don’t think so. He’s just a genuinely nice guy, you know. We all talk to him about things beyond you and beyond this band and we all want to meet him. He just fits with all of us for some reason,” Louis shrugged. “I actually don’t believe there are people who don’t get along with him.”

“People used to treat him like crap actually. That’s why he’s constantly defending himself when people say shit to him now,” Zayn said.

“Good for him then. Nothing wrong with telling people how it is every once in a while,” Louis said with a wink.

“You’re only saying that to feel better about your own twitter rampages,” Zayn said finishing his cigarette.

“Am not,” Louis laughed. When Zayn started pulling out another cigarette Louis leaned over and put his hand on his to stop him. “I get that you’re nervous to see him, but maybe you should stop smoking a pack a day if you want to woo him with your angelic voice.”

Zayn nodded and put the cigarette back into the pack as he got up to go back inside the hotel room. “I don’t know why I tell you things,” he joked.

“Cause you know that even if I give you shit I won’t tell anyone else,” Louis said following him back into the room.

“That must be it,” Zayn answered.

Liam was nervous. He had started his trip with only excitement, but the closer he got to the city and venue that the boys would be playing at, the more his nerves started to come through. The few hours he had spent in the car driving to meet the guys at the stadium they were playing at he had been thinking about how crazy it was that he was doing this. Pranking someone and driving across the state weren’t things that Liam pulled all that often.

At some point, Liam had to blast his music to help him keep his mind off of the whole thing. Especially as he stopped at a traffic light just down the street from the venue. His hands shaking with anticipation as he texted Niall, Louis, and Harry to let them know that he was almost there. Thankfully the parking lots for the stadium weren’t open yet so Liam didn’t have to worry about the traffic the radio station he was listening to was predicting for the show.

He followed Louis’ directions and made it to a side parking area around the back. Liam pulled up to the barricade in the road and rolled down his window. “Hey, my name’s Liam Payne. I’m meant to be meeting the band backstage and they told me come in this way,” he told him.

“Sorry, no one’s allowed to come through here,” he said.

“Are you sure? Louis told me to come to this entrance? Do you know where I’m supposed to go then?” he asked.

“I’ve been told not to let anyone through,” the guard said. Liam nodded and pulled off to the side for a moment to fish out his phone. He called Louis’ phone but he didn’t get an answer, so he called Niall next.

“Hey, mate! Ya here yet?” Niall answered.

“Not quite. I’m at the stadium but the guard by the entrance Louis told me to take won’t let me in, so I’m not really sure where to go.”

“Oh, it must be one of the security guards the venue hired. Just give me a second and we’ll sort it out for you,” Niall said before Liam started hearing mumbling over the line as Niall spoke to someone.   

“Sorted. Someone’s on their way to take care of it. I gotta run back to sound check, but I’ll see you soon,” Niall said before hanging up.

Liam pulled back over to the barricade and the guard gave him a funny look until a big guy jogged over and started talking to him. The guard waved him through with an apology and the new guy told Liam where he could park.

Liam followed the guard's instructions on where to park and someone was standing there to meet him. Liam shook his hand as the guy introduced himself as Paddy, one of the guards on One Direction’s security team.

Liam grabbed his costume from the back of his car and followed Paddy into the backstage area. He introduced Liam to a few of the roadies backstage as he brought him to a room that Liam could keep his things in until later.

“The boys are at sound check right now if you wanna check it out. They don’t have much longer and there’s a spot you can watch that Zayn won’t see you from,” Paddy said as he led Liam towards the stage. “It’s been hard to keep this from Zayn. I’m shocked he doesn’t know yet. No one around here can keep a secret for shit.”

Liam stood there with Paddy and talked a little bit about One Direction and their music while they watched the guys sing a few songs, but mostly goof around on the stage of an empty stadium. The second they finished sound check, Zayn announced that he was going for a smoke. The others went to find water bottles to cool down after running about in the sun and Harry threw a bottle to Zayn before he got the chance to leave.

As soon as Zayn was out of view the three guys ran off stage and straight for Liam’s hiding place. Liam gave them all hugs and couldn’t stop himself from smiling. The smile his mom liked to call ‘adorable’ even though he hated that it made him look like a five-year-old.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, mate,” Louis said.

“Yeah, you know, we could have made a really cool reality show out of this,” Niall laughed.

“You’re right,” Louis laughed. “There’s an entire show dedicated to the dangers of online relationships. This could have ended really awkwardly.”

“I didn’t even think of that!” Harry said. “Did you guys consider that?” He looked shocked as the other two shook their heads. Harry turned towards Liam and clapped him on the back. “Thanks for not being a catfish, Liam”

Liam laughed. “No problem. I’d say the same to you guys but you had verified accounts so I figured it was all legit.”

“Did you bring the costume and everything?” Niall asked.

Liam nodded. “Paddy told me to put it in a room down the hall.”

“Great! Can’t wait to see it, can we lads?” Louis said. “Zayn’s going to absolutely flip.”

“Guys Zayn’s headed back towards the stage,” Paddy told them touching the earpiece he was wearing.

“Hey, since we’re done with sound check I’ll hang out with Liam for a little while before the show. I can show him around the venue a bit. If I’m needed for anything just come grab me,” Harry said putting his arm around Liam’s shoulders. “We’re gonna go grab some food real quick so keep Zayn away for a little while,” Harry said as he pulled Liam down the hall.

“We’ve got the best food. The crew usually gets together and makes some of our favorites from back home, especially when we’re getting homesick,” he told Liam as he led them into a room that had a few people sitting around and a couple of tables pushed together filled with food.

Harry went around and introduced Liam to the people that were scattered around; their groomer, their stylist, their lighting people. Liam was surprised that Harry could remember all of their names, but they had been travelling with them for a few months all over the world. He was probably just impressed because he was forgetting their names as soon as he heard them.

A few minutes later, Liam had been introduced to everyone in the room, a lot of them calling him ‘that guy that Zayn is always talking about,’ and he and Harry finally made it over to the table with food.

Liam didn’t know what some of it was, but it all looked and smelled really good. Although he figured that could possibly be because he had been too nervous to eat on his drive over. He could feel his stomach growling, but he wasn’t sure if he should eat anything. The last thing he wanted to do today was throw up when they attempted to pull off their surprise.  He’d have to go into hiding if he threw up in front of thousands of people _and_ the guy that he liked.

Harry started loading up a plate with food and looked over at Liam when he still hadn’t moved to pick up a plate. “Help yourself, mate,” he said.

“I really don’t want to throw up in front of anyone and I don’t think my nerves will let me keep anything down,” he said.

“Well, at least grab a plate and put some food on it and if you feel up to it you can munch on it throughout the night. An empty stomach is just going to make you feel worse,” Harry said handing Liam a plate.

He took the plate from Harry and put a few things on it hoping that he might be able to stomach them at some point before the show.

They were told to take the long way back to Liam’s changing room to make sure that they avoided Zayn. Once back, they sat down on the little couch in there and Harry started to pick through the things on his plate.

“I always eat early on show days. There was this one time that I ate too close to stage time because I was talking to a few fans who had been waiting a long time to meet us. They were really nice and had made things for us so I wanted to take the time to take pictures with them and everything, but it meant that my dinner kept getting later and later. These shows are a lot more physical than some people seem to think because it’s about the equivalent of eating before an extreme workout. So I got through a few songs and ended up running off stage just in time to toss my cookies in the middle of a song. I was also dealing with really bad stage fright back then,” Harry said. “So I get what you’re going through. If you’re anything like me then you’ll forget about it as soon as you get on the stage.”

“Let’s hope so,” Liam said picking up one of the grapes on his plate and popping it in his mouth.

They talked for a little bit longer, Liam eating most of what was on his plate absentmindedly until Niall came in to send Harry to get ready for the show.

Niall plopped himself down on the couch the second that Harry had stood up from it. Liam gave Harry a hug before he left and then joined Niall on the couch.

“You any good at video games?” Niall asked gesturing to the small tv and game console in the corner of the room that Liam hadn’t given much mind to.

“Not really,” Liam laughed.

“Excellent,” Niall said getting up and finding a game.

They started playing a pretty uneven game of FIFA. Liam really had no idea how to play which Niall didn’t mind at all. Liam had pretty much given up on actually accomplishing anything in the game but tried as hard as he could to make it at least a little more difficult for Niall.

“Oh, I didn’t tell you what happened with my neighbor last night!” Liam yelled causing Niall to mess up his move allowing Liam to score.

“You did that on purpose!” Niall complained.

“Maybe a little,” Liam laughed. “But something really did happen last night. One of them got arrested.”

“Really? Was it for another party?” Niall asked.

“Surprisingly, no. I don’t know what happened when they were away from the complex, but a cop brought them home and they were being noisy and belligerent in the hallway. They didn’t have their key so they were banging on the door and the cop kept telling them to stop but they weren’t really listening. Next thing I know there’s this slam against my window and the cop had him pushed against it and was putting him in handcuffs,” Liam said. “Crazy stuff. I think the cop was trying to be nice because it’s a college area and he knows we’re all making stupid mistakes right now and didn’t want to ruin the guy’s life.”

“That’s why it’s good to know your drinking limits” Niall laughed before he started telling Liam about a crazy night he had out once.

“Damn lucky the events of that night never showed up in any tabloids,” Niall said.

“Yeah, now he’s much more aware of how many drinks he’s had which is a lot less fun if you ask me,” Louis said before he told Niall that one of the 5sos boys were looking for him.

“So where’s that Batman costume,” Louis asked after Niall had given Liam a hug bye and disappeared out the door.

Liam laughed but walked over to the bag that held his batman costume before he unzipped the duffle and pulled his suit out.

Louis whistled, “That is a proper batman costume right there, innit? I was expecting a bigger version of the ones you see kids running around in on Halloween, but it looks like you got this one from Christian Bale himself.”

“I saved up for it for a while. It’s probably the most expensive thing I’ve bought myself,” Liam said.

“I get it. I’ve got a few life-sized superhero statues at home.”

“Really? Who do you have?”

“Spider-Man and the Hulk right now but I’ve got my eye on a Captain America one as well,” Louis told him.

“That’s insane. I’m sure my bank account is glad I don’t have the room for something like that in my apartment,” he chuckled.

“So I’ll prompt you to come out during my speech on stage. It’s just over half way through the show. Our tour manager, Paul, will tell you when you need to get ready and stuff, but until then there’s a place that you can watch the show from,” Louis said.

Liam nodded but didn’t really have the ability to say anything.

“You okay, mate? It’s gonna be fun, yeah?” Louis told him, rubbing a hand on Liam’s back.

“Yeah, sorry. This is just crazy; you know what I mean?” Liam said. “How is this an actual thing that’s going to happen? Why do any of you want me here?”

“Cause you’re our friend. It’s become increasingly hard to find that nowadays. We get attached quickly when it does. I reckon you’re stuck with us now,” Louis said with a wink. “Tonight’s going to be fun. Just a bunch of lads having a good time in front of a few other people.”

“Yeah, a few thousand,” Liam muttered under his breath.

“Now tell me why you’ve driven across the state to surprise some superhero-loving dork,” Louis said bumping shoulders with Liam.

Liam looked at Louis skeptically for a moment. He was considering whether or not he should tell Louis about his feelings for his bandmate, but decided he wasn’t ready to throw it out there just yet. “It’s not like you guys live down the street. He’s my best friend so of course I’m gonna do what I have to in order to see him when I get the chance,” he answered. “Need to take these opportunities when they come up.”

Louis was getting ready to say something when Paul came into the room. “Louis, five minutes till you need to be on stage. The others are looking for you. Well, Zayn is looking for you. The others know where you are,” he said.

Louis got up and pulled Liam into a hug. “See you out there soon, Liam. I’m really glad you could make it tonight. It’s been fun getting to talk to you before Zayn whisks you away from us.”

Liam stepped back and made an exaggerated shocked expression. “Are you saying it’s not my decision who I spend time with this weekend? I plan on spending equal time with all of you, thank you very much.”

“You obviously don’t know how jealous Zayn can get,” Louis laughed, walking out of the room.

Liam listened as a stadium full of people were screaming for the show to start. He was back in his hiding spot and knew that the guys were getting ready to appear on stage to start the show.

He heard the band start and the crowd reached a deafening volume. He thought it had been crazy to watch the guys do sound check in front of an empty stadium but it was nothing compared to seeing them performing in front of a full crowd.

At one point, the boys stopped singing and let the crowd take over and it was sort of breath taking to hear sixty thousand people singing Little Things back to the four guys on stage. It truly represented how much the fans loved the group and how much the boys loved their fans. Liam could see why they had always said they had the best fans in the world.

The show was amazing. Liam could tell that the boys were in their element performing up there. He was so swept up in absorbing everything that he jumped when Paul tapped him on the shoulder when it was time for him to get changed.

He almost wanted to ask if he could forget the whole surprise so he could stay there and watch the show until he remembered that he’d get to see the whole thing again, this time uninterrupted, in just a few days. Plus, Liam really wanted to see Zayn’s reaction when he popped up on stage so he followed Paddy back to the room his stuff was in.

Liam made quick work of changing when he arrived and looked around the room trying to find something to do to keep the nerves at bay since he had a few minutes left. There were a few things still lying around from when the guys visited him that he noticed so he threw away the plates from his and Harry’s dinner and put the games away that Niall had pulled out. He had just folded the clothes that he’d been wearing earlier when there was a knock on the door. He opened it to a whistle from Paddy.

“Cool costume, kid,” he said. “You ready?”

Liam nodded and followed him to the platform that was above his old hiding spot. The same one the guys had entered the stage from earlier. His nerves stayed away until he heard Louis start introducing the band and he tried to breathe through it once it all hit him. He wanted to run away, but when he heard the pianist start playing the Batman theme he knew he couldn’t back out of it.

When Louis, Harry, and Niall started the na na na’s, a microphone was handed to Liam and he questioned what the hell he was doing there for the millionth time before he burst out on stage to finish off the song by yelling “Batman” into the microphone with the best Batman impression he could muster with his nerves.

Before Liam got the chance to say another word, or realize what was happening, he was on the floor and Zayn was on top of him. His was still trying to process how he ended up on the ground but now there were three more people piled on him.

Liam started laughing once his head caught up to what just happened. He wondered how funny it must have been to witness the four boys tackle him from afar. One by one the boys started to get up, which Liam was thankful for, taking in a few deep breaths of air now that most of the weight was off of him. Zayn got up last and held out a hand to help Liam get up from the stage.

He was still laughing as he made it safely to his feet before he gave each of the ridiculous guys in front of him a hug. He saved the biggest hug for Zayn since he was the only one he hadn’t gotten to see yet that day.

“That’s some welcoming,” Liam said in his batman voice. He turned towards the backing band and waved at them, “Thanks for the introduction, guys. You sound amazing.”

Liam turned towards the audience then and waved to them, “And you lot are awesome! Are you enjoying the show so far? These guys are great aren’t they!”

The crowds cheering was deafening and Liam couldn’t stop smiling.

“Thanks for joining us tonight, Batman,” Harry said.

“Hey, how would you guys feel if Batman joined us for the next song?” Niall asked as the crowd screamed again, Liam shaking his head next him.

“That’s settled then,” Louis said. “This is What Makes You Beautiful!”

Liam was still shaking his head and considered running off stage, but before he could, Zayn threw his arm around Liam’s shoulder and Liam knew he wouldn’t let him get away with running off.

Harry came over and told him that they’d point to him when they wanted him to sing and Liam gripped the microphone in his hand so hard that he thought it would break in half.

The music started and Harry was singing the first line while Liam tried to run through excuses he could use to get out of this in his mind. He calmed down a little bit watching Niall, Harry, and Louis dance through the chorus while Zayn was still attached to his side swaying them back and forth.

“You ready,” Zayn said and before Liam could answer in even a nod, all the boys were pointing at him from their various places on the stage.

Liam could feel his hands shaking as he held his microphone with one hand and had the other gripping the back of Zayn’s shirt for dear life as he sang what was usually Zayn’s verse in the song.

Zayn harmonized with him for the last few lines of the verse and the crowd went crazy, but Liam was glad that he was done with his part and he was ready to get off stage. Unfortunately for him the boys pointed to him again to join them in the chorus this time, but Liam let himself enjoy it a little more since it wasn’t just him singing. He could definitely say that he wasn’t planning on becoming a singer any time soon.

As the song ended, they all left the stage as the crowd went crazy.

Backstage, Liam took off his mask and grabbed the towel that Harry handed him so that he could wipe off the sweat that was all over his face. He saw Zayn doing the same out of the corner of his eye, and as soon as Zayn lowered the towel he was throwing his arms around Liam once again.

“How long has this been planned? How long are you staying with us?” Zayn asked as the other boys disappeared somewhere.

“I’m free until you guys leave Florida and it’s only been planned for a week,” Liam said taking a step back even though they each left an arm around the other. Liam was still shaking but now it was caused by the adrenaline high he got singing on stage instead of nerves. Zayn laughed and took Liam’s free hand in his and held it up making the shaking obvious to the both of them.

“You did really good out there,” Zayn said. “You’re gonna be buzzing for the next few hours.”

“Yeah, that was definitely something. I don’t know how you guys live going through that rollercoaster every night,” Liam laughed. “I feel like I’ve just lived 100 years’ worth of emotions in just ten minutes.”

Liam moved to hug Zayn again, finally processing that they were actually in the same room together and not just texting from across the world, but then the other three boys appeared with new shirts that weren’t drenched in sweat.

“Alright, that’s enough you two. You have plenty of time to catch up at the hotel. Right now we’ve got a few more songs to do, Zaynie Boy,” Louis said grabbing Zayn’s arm and pulling him out of Liam’s reach back towards the stage.

Harry handed Zayn a new shirt as they walked and if Liam stayed to see Zayn strip off his old shirt and put on the fresh one before he went to his room to change out of his Batman costume then no one had to know.

Liam felt like his skin could breathe again once he changed out of the extremely hot costume he’d been wearing. He was putting everything he’d brought with him in his bag when Paddy came into the room.

“So the boys will get into their van as soon as they get off the stage to get them out of here before the stands can start to empty, and then we’ll get you out just after they leave,” he told him.

“Okay, sounds good,” Liam said.

“They’ve got two songs left if you wanted to catch them,” Paddy said and laughed as Liam ran out of the room back towards the stage.

He watched the last couple of songs from a different spot in the wings now that he wasn’t trying to hide from Zayn. He could tell the show was ending by how many pyrotechnics were going off as smoke blocked his view of the boys down the catwalk.

The boys exited the stage at the end of it all, the crew members they passed by were patting them on the back and congratulating them on a good show.

“Alright boys, van’s waiting to take you to the hotel. Liam’s gonna follow after in his car,” Paddy said.   

“I’m going with Liam,” Niall yelled out before jumping onto Liam’s back.

Zayn looked like he was going to say something until Louis put his hand on Zayn’s back and shook his head, “He’s a fucking leprechaun, I swear.”

“Come on, Zayn. We’ll see them soon,” Harry said as the three headed for the van waiting down the corridor.

Liam went back to his room to grab his stuff, Niall still on his back until they walked through the door. He picked up his bag and Paddy walked with them back to Liam’s car.  “Here’s the info to the hotel,” he said handing Liam a piece of paper with directions, the address, and a phone number to call for questions.

“Just tell them you’re with the band when you get there and they’ll tell you where to park.”

“You’re joking,” Liam laughed. “I didn’t know that was something people actually said.” He took the paper and nodded to Paddy. “Got it, thanks,” he said. “If all else fails I’ve actually got one of the band members with me.”

“Alright then you guys are good to go. See you later. It was nice to meet you, Liam.”

“You too, Paddy. Thanks for all your help today,” Liam said as him and Niall got into the car. They started to leave the stadium, the traffic already completely backed up around the area. However, there was a police officer just outside to stop the traffic to let them out quickly, the traffic clearing just a few blocks later.

The drive to the hotel was a fun one to say the least. Niall had decided that they needed to have the windows down and the music loud. They passed several hotels but they still had a bit of a drive ahead of them and Liam asked why they didn’t stay at one of the hotels closer to where they needed to be.

“We don’t stay close to the venues anymore. Makes it harder for fans to track us down,” Niall explained. “Sometimes if we expect it to be really bad we’ll even stay at separate hotels just so the fans don’t all end up at one.”

All conversation was halted when a song came on the radio that caused both boys to sing at the top of their lungs, only stopping the theatrics when Liam pulled into the hotel lot and was met with a guard telling him where to park his car.

Liam picked up his overnight bag from the trunk and he and Niall made their way to the entrance of the hotel. There were quite a few fans standing out front who must have found the hotel after the three other boys showed up.

Before Liam could process the situation, there were fans all around them reaching out for Niall and pushing the both of them into each other and other fans. He looked over at Niall to see if he knew what they should do but all he could see were phones being shoved in Niall’s face and him looking like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

The look he saw on Niall’s face reminded him that the blond had once told him that he was claustrophobic and that sometimes it got overwhelming for him to be around too many people if there wasn’t enough space and Liam was worried that this was getting ready to turn into a really bad situation.

Liam fought his way closer to Niall who had gotten separated from him by some of the fans and he put his arm around the singer’s shoulders before he took a deep breath and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Everybody quiet!”

A few of the girls around him stopped talking but there were a few in the back that were still screaming and shouting for Niall. “Listen guys! Everybody needs to calm down and take a deep breath! I’m sure Niall would like to take pictures with as many of you as possible, but that won’t happen unless you settle down and give him some space. Can everyone take a few steps back?”

The girls started shouting for the girls in the back to step back a little and soon there was a lot more space around Niall and Liam. He rubbed Niall’s back comfortingly as the singer worked to even out his breathing and calm down.

“You okay to take a few pictures or do we need to make a run for it?” Liam whispered into Niall’s ear.

“I’m good, thanks,” he said with a shaky laugh.

“Don’t shove each other, alright? It’s not nice and you could really hurt someone. If there’s pushing no one gets anything, deal?” Liam shouted. When the group chorused an okay, Niall started taking pictures with the girls around him.

The crowd turned out to be a lot smaller than it had felt when they got surrounded and Niall got to take pictures with a majority of the girls who had been standing out there as Liam stood by watching to make sure it didn’t get crazy again.

He even talked to some of the girls standing to the side now that they had already gotten their picture with Niall and had asked if Liam was a bodyguard.

“No, have you seen their bodyguards? Those guys are massive! I’m just a friend of the guys,” he told them just as Zayn texted him asking what was taking them so long.

Liam excused himself and went over to get Niall so they could head into the hotel. They were on the elevator headed towards the rooms they were in when Niall said, “If Zayn doesn’t marry you, I will.”

Liam didn’t know what to say to that so he didn’t respond to it apart from the nervous laugh that left his lips.

“I still can’t believe that you managed to control them that way,” Niall said as they entered the room all the boys were currently occupying.

“Who are we controlling,” Louis asked, not looking up from the video game he was playing. Zayn was sitting on the couch munching on some food and Harry was sitting next to him reading something on his phone.

“The fans! It was beautiful. We got mobbed at first trying to get in here, but Payno got them to give me space and stop pushing each other,” Niall said.

“Picked a good one there, Zayn. Told him I’d marry him if you didn’t.”

All eyes turned to Zayn when he started coughing, choking around the snack that he’d been eating, his eyes wide.

“You alright, mate?” Harry asked, patting Zayn on the back as he coughed a little more.

Zayn looked up at Liam for a split second before he got to his feet. He was muttering under his breath and paced back and forth a couple of times before he walked out of the room. It had all happened within the space of a few seconds but Louis, Liam, Harry, and Niall were left staring at each other in shock as the door to the hotel room slammed shut.

“Look what you did now, Niall,” Louis said going back to his video game as Liam stood there awkwardly not knowing what to do his overnight bag still hanging off his shoulder.

It took less than a minute after Zayn left for the boys to go back to what they were doing. Louis had turned back to his game, Harry returned to his phone, and Niall wandered over to the couch and plopped down next to Harry.

The food that Zayn had been eating before he stormed off was lifted off the table and the blonde boy started to eat the stolen snacks. Liam wondered if he was meant to sit down. He could tell that Zayn had been agitated when he left the room and he wanted to know that he was alright, but the other boys didn’t seem too bothered by the fact that their friend had left the room upset. After a few years of living in each other’s pockets perhaps they were used to it and knew when they needed space from each other, but Liam's eyes kept glancing up at the door.

“You going to join us, Liam?” Harry asked, looking up from his phone.

“No thanks. I’m just going to go check on Zayn I think,” he said. He stood there for a moment to see if any of them would object. They had obviously known Zayn better than him and he was hoping that they would stop him from going after him if they thought he really needed to be alone right now. When no one said anything, Liam left the room to find the suite down the hall that he knew he was meant to be sharing with the singer.

He knocked on the door, but there was no response. Liam grabbed the keycard he'd been handed by one of the boys' assistants when him and Niall had arrived and pushed it into the card reader. At the green light, Liam heard the door unlock with a click and he entered the room. It was possible that Zayn didn’t even go to the suite, Liam realized as he looked around the empty room. He checked the bedrooms, they were both empty so he put his bag down in the one that didn’t already have a suitcase and wondered where Zayn might have gone to as the sliding door to the balcony opened.

Zayn was there, the smell of cigarette smoke coming into the room behind him.

“Should I go?” Liam asked when Zayn stepped over the threshold. “I don’t want to cause an issue by staying if you don’t want me to or something.”

Zayn turned around at the voice, door still cracked open.

“What? No, I don’t want you to go. I’m just mad at Niall,” Zayn said turning to close the door before he walked over to sit on the couch in the middle of the room. “I just needed to cool off.”

Liam walked over to the couch and sat down on the arm of the sofa, his feet on the cushion farthest away from Zayn, “Is this about the marriage comment? It’s not a big deal, I know Niall was just joking.”

“I know. I just tell those three idiots a lot of stuff and you fit so perfectly into our group that I don’t think Niall is filtering his thoughts as much as I’d like him to,” he laughed weakly. “I just feel a little embarrassed. I know you said you don’t know if you’re gay, and I don’t want you to think that just because I am means that I’m like only friends with you because I think you’re attractive or whatever because you’re one of my best friends and -”

“Zayn,” he said sliding off the arm of the couch so that he could inch closer to the popstar. “Zayn, stop. You know you don’t need to be embarrassed around me. I did say that, but I also said I think about being with guys sometimes. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about being with you.

“I mean; didn’t we already sort of admit that we care about each other? If I remember correctly, I was on a stage in front of thousands of people today dressed as Batman to surprise you. I’m not much of a performer so that was quite a bit for me,” he laughed.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I like you, I really do. I’ll be fine if you want to just be friends or whatever. Whatever you’re comfortable with really,” Liam said as he felt his cheeks heating up and he started to pick at some dirt under one of his fingernails.

The room was quiet. All Liam could hear were the breaths he was taking, although he was sure he could hear his heart beating as well. A few minutes passed, or at least what felt like a few minutes to Liam, and Zayn still hadn't moved or said anything.

Liam looked up at the other man and forced a smile on his face. He wondered if Zayn could see how fake it was, his mind racing while he tried to think of something to say to undo everything he'd just blurted out.

“Actually, I’m starting to understand your frustration with Niall. I was not prepared to share all this just yet,” he joked. He sort of felt like he was drowning in the silence and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out without so much as a sound from Zayn.

The silence was broken eventually with a shocked sound from Liam as Zayn’s lips connected with his own. Liam wasn't sure what to do at first. He wasn't expecting Zayn to kiss him and it took his mind a second to catch up. A million things were running through his brain and a small part of him felt like he needed a moment away to process what was happening. So Liam did what any rational human that was being kissed by Zayn Malik would and brought his hands up to pull Zayn closer to him.

“I’m still going to kill Niall,” Zayn said once they broke apart. Liam laughed at that. He laughed like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard in the world, but he figured it was his mind’s way of coping with everything that had just happened.

“Wow,” Liam chuckled as he’d calmed down enough to get his breathing under control, although it did nothing to stop his heart from racing. He looked over to Zayn who reached his arm out to pick up Liam’s hand and bring it to his lips for a sweet kiss. Before Zayn even had the time to move their hands back to their sides, Liam had moved in to place another kiss on Zayn’s lips.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

 “Get in!” Louis had laughed out as Liam and Zayn entered the suite they’d left the other three in a couple hours ago.

Instantly Liam started feeling hot even though he knew the room was cold to him earlier. Zayn left his side and walked over to the couches where he smacked Louis and Niall on the back of their heads.

“What was that for? I didn’t say anything?” Niall shouted.

“You’re smart enough to figure it out,” Zayn said.

“So are we good then?” Niall questioned.

“Undecided,” he answered but Liam could tell there wasn’t much heat behind Zayn’s words.

“So what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Harry asked letting the subject be dropped.

“Are we staying in town to go to the beach?”

“Well, if you guys are interested, I figured we could all head up closer to where I live since your next show is up there too. I have enough room in my car for the five of us. It’d be a tight fit but we could make a small road trip of it,” Liam proposed. “I know a small little beach that’s one of the better kept secrets in the area. Not too many people know about it so it’s relatively quiet.”

“That sounds sick, Liam” Louis said, the rest of the guys nodding in agreement.

“I’m not sitting in the middle! Harry, you and Niall can fight over who gets the other window seat. I assume the love bite on Liam’s neck means that Zayn’s sitting shotgun.”

Liam’s hand immediately shot up to cover the place on his neck where Zayn’s mouth had been earlier, his eyes wide. He used his free hand to smack Zayn’s shoulder. “You let me walk in here with a hickey on my neck without saying anything?” he pouted.

“Aw,” Zayn chuckled pulling Liam’s hand away from his neck. “Don’t be mad,” he said placing a soft kiss next to the mark on Liam’s neck.

“Not mad,” Liam mumbled. “Just wish I had gotten a warning. Thought I told you to be careful.”

“You did, but it’s really not that bad. These guys just like to make people miserable. It's how they show their love,” he said.

“Besides, I plan on marking you up a lot more later,” Zayn whispered into Liam’s ear causing his face to gain a red tint that wasn’t there before.

“Whoa, simmer down boys,” Harry said just as Niall groaned.

“God, they’re going to be insufferable,” Niall whined.

“Oh, shut it,” Zayn said. “You didn’t even hear what I said.”

“Not sure I wanted to,” Niall said under his breath as Louis came over and put himself in between Liam and Zayn.

With one arm over Liam’s shoulder and the other over Zayn’s he asked, “So when did this happen? Are you two official now?”

Both boys were looking at each other with a dopey smile and Louis was wondering if they knew he had even said anything or if they were lost in each other’s eyes. Eventually they both shrugged and Liam said, “We like each other. I don’t know, might as well see where this goes.”

“Obviously you both know we approve already, but you better treat our Zayn like the prince that he is, Liam James Payne. Hurt him and there will be serious consequences that may involve dismemberment,” Louis said very seriously. Liam nodded at a loss for words. He looked over to Harry and Niall who were nodding as well looking just as serious.

Zayn reached over and grabbed Liam’s hand, shrugging Louis’ arm off his shoulder. He gave Liam’s hand a reassuring squeeze and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before he started to pull him towards the door. “That’s enough of these fuckers for the night,” he laughed trying to ease the tension that was in the room. “We should all head to bed fellas. We’ve got a bit of a drive to get to the beach tomorrow so we’re heading out bright and early.”

“Whatever you say, Zayn, just make sure you use protection,” Harry laughed lifting his eyebrows in a suggestive way as the pair left the room to Niall and Louis catcalls and laughter.

“I hope you give them hell whenever they bring girls around,” Liam joked as they walked back to their room. He was positive that his cheeks would be permanently hot around these boys from now on. He blamed Zayn and the damn hickey.

“I used to be nice and reserved when they’d show up with girls. They have no idea what’s been unleashed. I cannot wait for one of them to bring someone ‘round again,” Zayn said unlocking the door to their suite and opening the door for Liam.

When the door closed behind them, the sound echoed through the room and the silence that followed had a weight to it. “Uh, would you like to sleep in my room?” Zayn asked. Liam nodded and they split apart. Liam walked off to the room that he dropped his bag in earlier. He changed into a pair of grey sweats and white shirt before he grabbed his bag and made his way to Zayn’s room.

He noticed that Zayn must have had the same idea as him as he had changed into something to sleep in too by the time that Liam entered the room. He put his bag on a chair in the corner of the room and made his way over to the bed that Zayn was climbing into. He got his phone and charger and found a spot to set it on the nightstand, before he climbed into the bed next to Zayn. Liam quickly set his alarm for the morning, not liking how quick he knew the time he set would get there. Zayn switched the light off and snuggled up to Liam. It took Liam a moment to get comfortable after Zayn snuck his arms around him, he’d never been the little spoon before but when Zayn’s lips brushed against his shoulder he’d never felt so secure and content.

Liam laid there for a few minutes, but his head was still racing through everything that had happened that day. He still couldn’t fathom that he was in bed with Zayn. Zayn, his best friend from a different country that he’d only really talked to online before. His best friend who he had, in fact, been kissing earlier.

“I don’t want whatever we’re doing here to change anything between us,” Liam blurted out in the dark room. “I still just want to be a goofy dork who tells you everything. That’s not to say I don’t want to add kissing and stuff to that, because I do. I just really don’t want to lose you as a friend.”

“Hey, it’s okay,” Zayn said moving so the two boys could turn and look at each other. He grabbed Liam’s hand in his own and kissed the back of it. “There’s no rush and we’ll take this slow. I don’t want to rush into anything or risk losing you either. I’m willing to work for this, Liam.”

“Okay,” Liam smiled as Zayn leaned over and gave Liam a small, sweet kiss.

“Shit,” Zayn said laying back on his side of the bed after catching sight of the clock. “We have to be up in like three hours.”

Liam groaned and turned over so that his back was to Zayn again. “Hopefully I’m not too tired to drive tomorrow,” he laughed as Zayn moved to fit behind him again.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Zayn said once they were settled and comfortable again.

“Me too,” Liam mumbled as he felt the events of the day catch up to him. His eyes closed and he drifted off as Zayn pressed a kiss to his shoulder. Liam was pretty sure he’d never been happier in his life.

Ten minutes after he had fallen asleep, an annoying buzzing sound was echoing through Liam’s ears. A groan escaped him and he looked around the room to find the source before his eyes landed on his phone. It must have been more than ten minutes because the alarm he’d set was ringing loudly next to him and sunlight was shining in through the windows. He reached out, fumbling around until he was able to hit the snooze button on the device.

With the silence restored, Liam snuggled back into Zayn until the alarm cut through the room once again. Zayn shifted next to him when he sat up and shut off the sound.  

“No,” he heard Zayn mumble as he lifted up the blanket to cover his face and turned his back to Liam. He just laughed and moved the covers enough to start running his fingers through Zayn’s hair.

“Zayn, it’s time to get up, babe. We have to get ready for the beach,” he told him.

“Mmmm, that feels nice.”

“I know, but I’m gonna stop now so we can get ready,” Liam said, as he stopped playing with Zayn’s hair. He rolled out of bed and stretched out his limbs a little bit before Zayn’s hand caught his own and pulled him back down next to him.

Zayn crawled on top of him and attacked Liam’s face with little kisses. Liam just laid there and laughed, not at all minding Zayn’s affections. “When I first heard your alarm go off, I thought that maybe yesterday had been a dream. I’m glad it wasn’t,” Zayn said before kissing down Liam’s neck.

The kisses stopped being as playful as they were earlier and it’s starting to have an effect on Liam. It was made all too obvious when his voice quivered as he asked, “Do you dream about us being together often?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Zayn smiled before moved to take Liam’s lips with his own. Liam felt Zayn lean into him, sending fire through his body. A small whine left Liam’s mouth when Zayn bit down on his bottom lip. The sound spurred Zayn to start moving above Liam, needing friction or something to assuage the burning he felt in his skin.

Liam moved his hands down to Zayn’s waist and snuck his hands under his shirt. He broke the kiss so that he could pull Zayn’s shirt up between them and over Zayn’s head. Zayn moved to lift Liam’s shirt off as well, but it was proving difficult with him lying on the bed so he flipped them over to make it easier now that Liam was on top. Liam sat back and started pulling his own shirt over his head just as a knock sounded at the door of their suite.

Zayn groaned and Liam fumbled to get his shirt on as quick as possible while rolling off of Zayn as they heard the door open. Then there was another knock on the door to their room.

“You guys awake?” They heard Harry ask through the door. “We all know that Zayn sleeps like the dead and we don’t know what kind of sleeper Liam is so we wanted to make sure you’re up and getting ready for the beach.”

“Yeah, we’re up,” Liam shouted back trying not to sound like he was out of breath.

“Understatement of the century,” Zayn mumbled. It wasn’t loud enough for Harry to hear on the other side of the door, but Liam caught it and broke out into a loud laugh.

“Okay, we’ll meet you guys in the lobby in ten minutes,” Harry said and they heard him shuffle back out of the suite.

“At least he didn’t come into the room,” he said turning to look at Zayn lying next to him. Zayn still didn’t have a shirt on and Liam was definitely enjoying the view.

“We’re lucky it was H and not Louis,” Zayn said.

“I know,” Liam sighed as he got out of the bed. He fished his swimsuit out from the bottom of his bag. He stuck his tongue out at the sad look Zayn was giving him and he headed to the bathroom across the suite to get changed. At least Harry’s interruption made it easier for him to get rid of the problem that had arisen when him and Zayn got carried away, for that he was thankful. He didn’t think there was enough time to take a cold shower or sort himself out, but then he heard the shower in Zayn’s room start up. 

Fifteen minutes later Liam and Zayn made their way down to the lobby. The hotel had been able to get the fans that had been outside the night before to leave so there were no troubles with getting to Liam’s car, thankfully. The boys all had a small bag with the things they would need for the next day; a change of clothes for when they left the beach, something to sleep in, something to wear on the way to the stadium the day after, and their toiletries. The rest of their things were already with their team and being sent to their next hotel.

According to Liam’s phone, the drive to the beach would take about three hours from where they were staying. He let the boys sort out who would be sitting where for the journey through a game of rock, paper, scissors. Zayn ended up sitting shotgun and nobody complained since that’s what they had expected in the first place. Niall and Louis won the coveted window seats and Harry got stuck in the middle of them.

Once they were all settled into their seats and buckled in, Liam started the trip to the beach. To try and make the middle seat a little more bearable, Liam let Harry have control of the music for the trip.

“Just nothing too slow, please,” he said handing over his ipod. “I’m still tired and don’t want to fall asleep while I’m driving.”

The ride seemed to go by quickly, filled with jokes and laughs until Niall started complain about the lack of food. “Really?” Zayn asked. “We just stopped and got breakfast an hour ago.”

Liam just laughed and stopped at a drugstore. He parked in front of the entrance and ran inside while the boys waited in the car. He quickly grabbed some sunscreen, drinks, and snacks for the five of them - although there may have been extra snacks for Niall.

When Liam was checking out, he noticed that the cashier kept looking outside towards his car.

“You know, your friends look like those guys that are always on the front of those teeny magazines that little girls buy all the time,” the guy had said to him.

“Oh, I know who you’re talking about! One Direction, right?” Liam laughed. “What would I be doing with a world famous band in my car? Surely they’d be the ones in here paying for all this.”

The cashier laughed as he took Liam’s money for everything. “Do they know they look just like those guys?” he asked.

“Yeah, unfortunately they get it all the time. They’re thinking of making a tribute band. I think it’s gone to their heads,” Liam said as the guy handed him his change and a receipt. He wished the guy a good day and headed back to the car.

Liam could barely keep it together as he got back on the road and told the guys what had happened at the store.

 

> **@Louis_Tomlinson** : If we had a tribute band, what would their name be?  
>  **@HarryStyles** : Bun Inspection?  **#TheOneDirectionTributeBand**  
>  **@zaynmalik** :  Gun Projection  **#TheOneDirectionTributeBand**  
>  **@NiallOfficial** : Hun Selection  **#TheOneDirectionTributeBand  
>  ****@NiallOfficial** : Fun Injection  **#TheOneDirectionTributeBand**  via  **@liam_payno  
>  ****@Louis_Tomlinson** : Apparently we’ve all caught the Pun Infection  **#OneDirectionTributeName**

There were only a handful of cars in the parking lot and the beach looked nice and empty. Liam knew that most people would probably start coming after noon, but it was a relatively quiet beach usually so he hoped their trip would be pretty low key.

He dug through his trunk to find his beach stuff under the five bags that were now back there. He often kept blankets and towels stored there for spontaneous beach trips as well as a soccer ball, frisbee, and some speakers to plug his ipod into. He got everything and made Zayn help him by carrying the food and drinks he bought.

There was a breeze coming over the water so the boys helped Liam set the blankets in place using various shoes and rocks to hold the edges down. He thanked them then rooted through the bag of stuff he bought at the drugstore pulling out the sunscreen. He threw it to Niall first and told him to put some on since he was the palest.

All the boys took turns putting on the sunscreen until Zayn was the only one who hadn’t put any on. “I don’t need it,” he said.

“Anyone can get skin cancer if you’re not careful so please put some on. I’ll even do your back for you,” Liam finished with a wink. Zayn let him help with the sunscreen.

When Liam was sure that everyone was sufficiently covered in sunscreen and settled, he told them to do whatever they wanted as long as the police don’t get called and plopped down onto the blanket. Zayn sat down next to him as Niall, Louis and Harry all headed towards the water.

“You can join them if you want. Think I might just rest my eyes for a minute,” Liam said not wanting Zayn to miss out on the beach day just because he was a lot more tired than he thought he’d be. The nerves about the show and seeing the boys had kept him up the night before and then with all the excitement from yesterday Liam somehow hadn’t gotten much sleep the past two days.

“I’m good. Think I’ll just chill out, listen to music, and work on my tan,” Zayn told him. He grabbed Liam’s ipod and speakers and set it up so that it was playing music at a soft volume, adding to the sound of the ocean waves instead of taking away from them. Liam turned onto his stomach as Zayn laid on his back. He turned his head to the side to look at Zayn who had his head propped up on a towel as he looked out to the water where his bandmates splashed around. Liam loved the smile on Zayn’s face, a part of him wanted to take a picture, but his eyes kept getting heavier until he drifted off to sleep.

A couple of hours later, Liam was woken up by a girl making loud noises next to him. “Shh, my friend’s sleeping,” he heard Zayn say.

Liam groaned but turned over and chuckled, “Not anymore.”

There were a couple of girls standing there and they looked apologetic for waking him up so he added, “It’s okay. I slept long enough, I think. Anymore sleep and I probably won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

Liam looked over at Zayn who mouthed ‘sorry’ to him. Liam just shook his head and sat up. He stretched out his body a little to get rid of the slowness he was feeling as Zayn talked to his fans. “What can I do for you guys? Now that this one’s awake we’re getting ready to join our friends,” he said.

“Right, sorry for bothering you but we knew we’d never have this chance again. Could we possibly get a photo with you?” one of the girls said.

“Yeah, sure,” Zayn said standing up. “Just please don’t post the pictures or tell anyone where we are for a few hours, deal?”

The girls nodded and walked to where Zayn moved to just off the blankets they had set up. Liam stood too and asked if they’d like him to take the photo for them. It was partially an automatic response within him from the several times he’d had to stop at work to help guest that were trying to take selfies. “If you wouldn’t mind, that would be amazing,” the other girl had said and handed Liam her phone.

Liam took a few photos of them with Zayn and then handed them back their phone. Although Liam and Zayn could tell that the girls wanted to stay and talk some more, they wanted their little piece of undisturbed heaven back, so Zayn hugged both the girls and told them it had been lovely to meet them before he nudged Liam and started walking towards the water where the other boys were. Liam looked back to make sure nothing of value was being left in the open but then he fell into step next to Zayn.

Before he could step into the water, Zayn stopped short, huffing, “I’m sorry they woke you up like that.”

“It’s fine,” Liam shrugged. “Just don’t let Louis draw on me if I fall asleep while watching a movie tonight.”

The water was brushing against their feet and Liam saw Niall and Louis floating around just a little bit out. Zayn stopped short and bit his lip looking over to Liam.

“So would now be a good time to tell you that I can’t swim?” he asked with a chuckle.

“That’s not a big deal,” Liam shrugged.  “We won’t go further out than you’re comfortable with. I figured we wouldn’t go out too far anyway. Wasn’t sure how you felt about getting your hair wet,” he joked. Zayn shook his head and failed at not trying to laugh.

“We don’t have to go in at all though if you don’t want to. We’ve got plenty of stuff we can do on shore too,” he assured him.

“No we can go in the water,” Zayn said although he looked a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. “I’m trusting you not to let me drown.”

“Do you really think Batman would let anyone drown on his watch?” he said with a wink. The two of them walked out into the water, waves of cold water splashing against them as they walked further from the shore. Liam wanted to grab his hand, but he knew he couldn’t right now since they were out in the open. Especially since some fans had already spotted Zayn and he wasn’t sure if they were still lingering or not.

He stopped them once they were waist deep in the water and squatted down so that the water was up to his neck. Zayn copied his actions so that he was also mostly under the shallow water and Liam reached out to grab Zayn’s hand once they were hidden under the surface to reassure him that he wasn’t going to let him drown.

“This okay?” he asked him. Zayn nodded and Liam called Louis and Niall to join them since him and Zayn obviously weren’t going to be going as far out as they were.

The two of them swam over and Liam asked where Harry had gone. According to Louis he’d overheard someone talking about the local artisans that littered the pier and he wanted to check it out.

“Think we need to check on him? It’s not like there’s a lot of people here but Zayn got approached by some fans up on the beach,” Liam told them.

“Nah, he’ll be fine. Harry knows how to handle a crowd better than all of us. Loves it even,” Niall said.

“If he gets swarmed he’d handle it and then come find us. No worries,” Louis finished with a smile.

Liam nodded and let his knees rest on the sand below him and let the waves roll over and massage his body. There was something so relaxing about the beach, Liam had always dreamed about having a little house on the beach someday.

They stayed in the water for a while until Harry made his way back to them. Louis and Niall stood up to walk to shore and Liam was sad that getting out meant that he’d have to let go of Zayn’s hand again. He gave Zayn’s hand one final squeeze underwater before they made their way out of the water to sundry.

The five of them laid out on the blankets listening to music while the sun soaked up the water on their skin. It was nice while it lasted, but then Louis started to get fidgety. Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before he’d get up to no good, so Liam got up and grabbed the soccer ball he’d brought with them.

Zayn opted to sit out but the rest of the boys kicked the ball around for a bit. They all ended up in the sand at some point and Liam wondered how long it would take him to vacuum out all the sand he knew was about to get tracked into his car.

It had honestly been one of the best beach days Liam had ever had. He was glad he picked a good beach to take the boys. Aside from the time Liam got woken up, they only got stopped by fans once more as they were going back to Liam’s car.

Liam held out his hands and all the boys started piling their stuff into his arms so they could pose with the fan. He disappeared from sight behind all of their stuff, but, when the photo was done, Zayn rushed over to help Liam who jokingly gave Zayn everything so that he was the one to disappear.

Harry pulled out his phone and snapped a quick photo of Zayn holding everything before the rest of the boys moved to grab their things from Zayn. Niall was worried about getting car sick so when they got back to the car, Zayn switched seats with him and took his old window seat in the back.

Instead of choosing songs to play, Harry just put Liam’s ipod on shuffle for the drive back to Liam’s apartment. He told the rest of guys that they’d skip a song if two or more people wanted to pass it and he put the device in the middle between Niall and Liam. It was a two-hour drive to Liam’s apartment since it was a little bit farther than his normal beach hangout.

The ride didn’t seem that long with all the conversations going on. Liam, Niall, and Louis were all talking about the music that was currently playing and what music they thought had influenced it while Harry was showing Zayn the picture he’d put on Instagram of Zayn holding all the stuff at the beach.

Zayn laughed at the ridiculous picture on Harry’s phone and promised that he’d get his revenge later. Liam and Louis were now arguing about music and the artists they liked as Niall tried to mediate between the two of them. However, all conversations stopped when Liam’s ipod started playing a new song.

Niall, Harry, Zayn and Louis all groaned as their voices came through the speakers, but Liam turned the song up and announced that they weren’t skipping it. Liam started singing along and the rest of the boys laughed before eventually giving in and joining him. Niall was laughing so hard that he couldn’t sing along, but he managed to pull out his phone and quickly film their shenanigans.

Liam saw the sign for his exit up ahead as the song was ending so he checked his rearview mirror before getting over to make his turn. He caught Zayn’s eyes from the backseat for a split second, the sun setting behind him, and thought about how he wished the day didn’t have to end.

They arrived at Liam’s house and unloaded their things from the car. Liam sighed when he looked around the empty car to see the amount of sand he was going to have to deal with. When the five of them had emptied the trunk, Liam lead them all to his apartment. There was a package sitting outside his door, and Louis picked it up and handed it off to Zayn as Liam unlocked the door.

Liam instructed them to take a shower and that they’d each have five minutes so that they wouldn’t run out of hot water. He walked over to his linen closet and handed out a clean towel to everyone. While Harry started off the showers, Liam ordered a couple of pizzas and told the other guys to help themselves to whatever they wanted in the kitchen.

When he got off the phone, Zayn reminded Liam that he had a package to open but Liam’s face turned red and he told him that he’d open it after they all left. Louis heard that and marched over and opened the package to peek at what was inside. He pulled out the movie and held it up for Zayn and Niall to see.

“Really?” Zayn asked with a laugh.

Liam shrugged, “I haven’t seen it yet.”

Liam took his new copy of This Is Us from Louis and put it on the shelf that contained hundreds of other films as Harry came out of the bedroom. Louis laughed as he walked away to take his shower next.

Zayn and Liam went into the kitchen to help Niall get the beers and snacks as Harry roamed around Liam’s apartment looking at the pictures hanging on his walls and his music collection.

Louis came out and grabbed a beer from Zayn with a, “Cheers!” He walked over to the couch and sat down before popping his drink open. Zayn left to take his turn in the shower and Niall entered the living room before placing the snacks he collected and his beer down on the coffee table and walking over to the guitar that Liam had in the corner of the room. “You play?” he asked.

“I stumble through,” Liam laughed as Niall started strumming a few chords out.

Niall was in the shower when the pizza came, so everyone was able to grab a slice before he started declaring pieces his.

Liam told the guys to pick out a couple movies while he was in the shower and when he came out feeling fresh he saw the DVD menu for This Is Us on his TV screen. He started laughing and looked around at the guys sitting in his living room shoving pizza down their throats.

“Really? I’m sure you guys have seen this loads. You don’t have to watch it again,” Liam said but Zayn just shook his head.

“We didn’t even have a chance to veto it once Niall saw it,” he said.

Liam looked at Niall for an explanation and he just shrugged, “Can’t get tired of it. They’re my favorite band.”

“Alright then, I guess,” Liam laughed. He tossed his phone to Zayn and said, “I have an idea. Zayn, take a picture of me real fast. I’m gonna get your fans involved in this.”

Liam stood in front of the TV and pointed at the screen. He joined Zayn on the couch and got his phone back to tweet out the photo.

  

 

> **@liam_payno:**  who else is watching it? my pizza and I need to know we’re not alone.  
>  **@liam_payno:**  I haven’t seen it before so prepare for an imminent liveblog  **#1DonDVD**  
>  **@liam_payno:**  if y’all want to watch it with me I’ll be starting it in 5min!  **#1DonDVD**

The boys caught on to what Liam was doing and started laughing. “They’re going to freak out once they realize we’re in on this,” Niall said checking his timeline. He noticed that Liam was actually getting quite a response for his little watch party.

“They don’t even have to know if you don’t want them to. From what I see daily a lot of people don’t think we’re friends and no one really knows that we’ve been hanging out today,” Liam said.

Zayn started scrolling through his feed as well and noticed that Liam was right about people saying they weren’t friends a lot.

“People can be awful sometimes. I don’t get it,” Niall said not looking up from his phone.

“Me either, but thankfully I don’t have a public image to uphold and can call people out when I want to,” Liam said.

“Yeah, but even when you do you’re still nicer than you have to be,” Louis said.

“That’s just how my momma raised me,” he answered.

Five minutes passed so Liam hit the play button on the remote to start the movie and started live tweeting his reactions to it.

 

> **@liam_payno:**  aw! look at the babies  **#1DonDVD**  
>  **@liam_payno:**  love this! I feel less upset about missing the concert when they came to town last year.  **#1DonDVD**  
>  **@liam_payno:**  these guys are making hard work look easy  **#1DonDVD**

When they got to the part where Zayn bought his mom a house, Liam couldn’t help but cry a little. “That’s so great, just ignore me,” he said as the other boys chuckled a little. He put his head in his hands to try and hide it, embarrassed but Zayn tucked him into his side and kissed him on the head.

 

> **@liam_payno:**  why didn’t you guys tell me I was going to cry? now I’m embarrassed! **#1DonDVD**  
>  **@liam_payno:**  who’s watching with me? send your photos, videos, etc.  **#1DonDVD**  I’d love to DM some of you!

Liam went through and created a group DM with twenty of the people who were watching the movie with him.

Group: 1DonDVD

 

> Hey everyone! So I’m Liam, thanks for watching this with me! Have you guys seen it before?  
>  **I’ve seen it like a hundred times.**  
>  _I know every word of this movie_  
>  **Nope, my first time too.  
>  _I saw it once in theaters but this is the first time I’ve seen it since then._**
> 
> What was your favorite part?  
>  **I liked when they went camping. Those four would not survive very long in the woods.**  
>  **_I liked getting to see them at home with their families._**  
>  **I liked getting to see the concert parts. What was your favorite part?**  
>  I liked hearing Harry talk about fame and his thoughts on it. I think it was a very interesting point.  
>  And it wasn’t like he was whining about it he just doesn’t like that ‘famous’ label people put on him and I can totally understand that.
> 
> **What part did you cry at?**  
>  I started crying when Zayn bought his mom a house. I think it shows a side of Zayn that he doesn’t share with many people.  
>  That Harry Potter quote when Dumbledore says “I shall never reveal the best of you” to Snape...I feel like that’s sort of how Zayn is.  
>  Like a I’d rather you think I don’t care at all then know that I care too much sort of thing.  
>  …When you start tearing up again so your friends throw a tissue box at your face #mylife  
>  Sorry, y’all, my friends are over and giving me a bunch of shit for being emotional haha. (but I saw one of them tear up too and they’ve seen this before)
> 
> **Are you really friends with one direction or do you just occasionally tweet at one another? You never really talk about them anymore.**  
>  Yeah, we’re friends. I don’t tweet about them too much anymore because I got sick of the hate I was getting. It wasn’t worth bringing the guys up if it meant I was going to get bullied. I got enough of that growing up and so sometimes words can still get to me.  
>  **I’m sorry to hear that. Good for you, though. You’ve got to do what’s best for you.**  
>  Hey, so since my friends are here I don’t want to continue to be rude and ignore them. Thank you for joining me in this little watch party. It was a lot of fun!  
>  **It was really nice to talk to you like this Liam!!  
>  _You should do chats like this more often._** _  
> _ I’ll think about it! Night y’all!

Liam left the thread and thanked everyone for joining him in watching the movie.

Niall stuck out his phone and told everyone to squeeze together for a photo before he tweeted about the movie night now that it was over.

The movie was over and since it had been a long day, Liam moved to get the airbeds he had in his closet out so they could get settled for the night. The beds were filling with air while Niall grabbed Liam’s guitar and started to strum a little on it.

“That’s new,” Liam said listening to what Niall was playing. “Is that from your next album?”

“Yeah, we just recorded that one a few weeks ago. Last minute addition by Zayn,” Louis said.

“Oh?” Liam asked. “Can I hear?”  They all looked at Zayn for the go ahead and he seemed a little hesitant but eventually nodded at them to go ahead.

The four of them gave Liam an exclusive acoustic listen to a song they were currently calling _Tied Down_ off their next album and Liam loved it. “That was amazing! Your fans are going to love it! I love it!!”

“So now that we played you one of our songs, why don’t you play us one of yours?” Zayn said taking the guitar from Niall and handing it to Liam.

“Okay, so this is the newest song I’ve come up with. I still want to work on it some more so please keep that in mind,” Liam said before he grabbed his laptop to look at what he’d written.

He cleared his throat and started singing a rough version of the song he’d written last week called _What A Feeling_. When he finished the song, the boys in front of him were staring. He looked down feeling self-conscious.

“Oh my god,” Louis said which made Liam look up.

“Shit, mate. Why don’t you have an album already?” Niall asked causing Liam to laugh.

“Because I don’t want one,” he said as he got up to put his guitar back on its stand. “Don’t get me wrong, I love performing every once in a while but I definitely don’t want to be a solo artist or anything. I’d prefer to write for others or write with others, you know? I don’t think I’d be anything special on my own.”

“We get that whole not wanting to do it on your own thing, it’s complete bullshit cause you’re amazing, but we get it,” Zayn said putting his arm around Liam after he returned to the couch.

“I’m still not over this,” Louis said.

“Liam, you have to write at least one song with us,” added Harry.

“Yeah, sure. I’d obviously love that.”

They spent the rest of the night messing around even though they knew they’d regret it at the show the next day. Liam was struggling to stay awake but he had a gut feeling that if he fell asleep before Louis that a penis would be drawn on his face.

When they had all finally decided that they needed to sleep in order to function the next day, Liam snuggled up to Zayn on one of the air mattresses and closed his eyes. The last thing he did before falling asleep was laugh when Louis said, “We’re keeping you. Welcome to the band if anyone has a problem with it I’ll start a petition.”

Liam drove the boys back to their hotel the next morning and stayed with them until they had to go to the stadium to do sound check. He promised he’d meet up with them after the show and then he left to shower and get ready before he picked up the girls he occasionally babysat. The two twelve-year-old twins were the reason Liam had started listening to One Direction in the first place. They had gone through a phase where the only music they would listen to was One Direction and Liam had really liked them so he looked into the band after he got home that night.

He knew how bad the twins had wanted to see One Direction so when the tour was announced he told their mom about it. As a single mom she wasn’t able to afford the tickets, but Liam took care of it for them. He knew it was worth it when he arrived to pick them up and saw the two girls decked out in One Direction merch waiting for him.

The girls demanded that Liam play One Direction music on their drive to the stadium so he let them have their way and drove as they danced and sang from the backseat. There was a bit of traffic around the stadium but he eventually got a spot in the parking lot and made his way inside with one girl on each side.

They didn’t have the best seats in the house, but it was an amazing show and Liam could tell that the girls were having the time of their lives. Liam was excited to see the show in its entirety this time and no one had to put up with his singing when the boys sang What Makes You Beautiful. Liam took photos and video of the show and of the girls dancing and singing along with everything so he could send it to their mother.

Once the show was over, the stands started to clear out. Liam gathered up the twins but instead of walking them back to the car, he started walking them closer to the stage. The girls were confused as Paddy met Liam and lead them backstage, but they caught on when Zayn’s head popped out from around the corner.

“You must be Evie and Stevie,” he said as he walked over to them. Liam looked down at the twins who looked like they were in shock.

“You know our names?” Evie asked.

“Yeah, Liam told me all about you guys and that you’re fans. I also heard that you’re the ones that got him to listen to our music.”

“We were,” Stevie said. “He was mad that we kept playing the same songs over and over again, but he was singing along by the time he left.”

“Wow, I wish I had had a babysitter like that growing up. Mine always just made me turn off my music,” Zayn said.

“Liam’s not our babysitter!” Evie corrected, “He’s our friend.” Stevie nodded her head in agreement.

“I’m sorry. You know, Liam’s my friend too so I guess that makes us all friends now,” Zayn told them. “Would you like to come see the rest of the guys so we can all be friends?”

Evie and Stevie nodded and the four of them went to meet up with the rest of the group. They had a great time getting to meet the band and Liam sent a photo of all of them together to the girls’ mom. When Liam says it’s time to go because the girls have school in the morning, they start whining a little.

However, a quick talk from Harry assuring them that whenever they’re in the same town they can have free tickets to their shows made it a lot easier for Liam to take them home. The girls talked about the amazing time they had the entire ride home and Liam was glad he got to do this for them.

Liam made his way back to the boys’ hotel after he dropped the girls off. He was there to pick up Zayn so that they could finally spend some time just the two of them. They went back to Liam’s apartment and watched a movie, airbeds from the night before still covering the floor. When the movie was over they didn’t feel like starting a new one but they didn’t feel like going to bed just yet either.

It was the last time they’d see each other for who knew how long and they wanted to make the most of it. Liam lent Zayn a pair of swim trunks and the two made their way to the pool. They hung out in the jacuzzi for a few hours, talking about their future together.

“So what are you doing after graduation in a couple of months? Have you applied to any of the internships I sent you?”

“Yeah, and I couple I found myself.”

“Where are they?”

“A few in LA, one is in Tennessee, and I applied for the few you sent me in London.”

“Got any you’re particularly rooting for?”

“I’d really like one in London, I think. It’d be nice to get to hang out with you and the guys more. I told you I want to do this all on my own though so no reaching out on my behalf or using your contacts to get me in.”

Zayn lifted his hands in the air, a sign of surrender. Then he reached forward to pull Liam against him in a kiss.

“Babe, anyone can walk out here and see us,” Liam said breaking away from the kiss and putting a little distance between the two of them.

“They’d have to get really close to recognize me though. I’m not worried,” Zayn said moving closer.

“If you’re sure,” Liam laughed against Zayn’s lips. He wrapped his hand around the back of Zayn’s neck and let his other hand trail down Zayn’s chest. He could feel Zayn’s abs tighten as he made his way to Zayn’s waist.

Zayn broke the kiss and put his arms around Liam to pull him into a tight hug. “Come on tour with us,” he said.

“What?” Liam asked. He had to have heard Zayn wrong.

“Come on tour with us after your graduation. You’re going to have a month before your internship starts anyway.”

“I’ll think about it,” Liam said kissing Zayn on the cheek and pushing away to get out of the water. “So how much sleep were you planning on getting tonight?”

\- - - - - - - - - - - 

It’s their last day together for a while and Zayn, Liam and the boys are spending it together at Universal.

It’s a different experience for Liam since everything has to be done a certain way to maintain safety, but they have a blast. The lovebirds demand to sit next to each other on every ride and Liam finds Zayn’s dislike of roller coasters nice when it means he gets to hold Zayn’s hand through them.

The only time he really puts his foot down is when they get to rip-ride rocket, but Liam offers to opt out of the ride since he’s done it before and stays with Zayn. The boys eventually find them after the ride kissing against a wall in private area behind the scenes. In true friend fashion they gave the lovers hell for it for the rest of the day.

Liam and Zayn grew quiet and sad as their day at the theme park came to a close. The boys were leaving for the airport and they didn’t want to say goodbye.

“Only a couple of months before we can see each other again. You’re gonna be busy with finals and graduating anyways. We’ve gone months without seeing each other before,” Zayn said outside the car that was going to take him the airport. The rest of the boys had already said their goodbyes to Liam and were waiting patiently for Zayn to join them in the car.

“I know, but it’s different now,” Liam said.

“That’s true, but the feelings have always been there. Now our chats just get to be that much steamier,” Zayn told him with a wink.

“Why do I like you so much,” Liam groaned laying his forehead on Zayn’s chest, his head moving up and down from Zayn’s laughter.

Liam’s phone interrupted the moment and he reached into his pocket to see a text from Louis.

_Can you two stop sucking face and can you tell Zayn to get in the car before we miss our flight?_

Liam read it out loud to Zayn and sighed, “I guess this is goodbye for now.”

They leaned into each other for one last kiss before Zayn pulled away and got in the car. Liam watched as the car pulled away and went around the corner of the parking garage before he got into his car to drive home.

He didn’t realize how hard it was going to be to say goodbye, but he also knew he’d see them in a couple of months.

Liam had just made it back to his apartment when his phone went off with a twitter notification. He opened it up to see a tweet from Zayn.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, thank you to any one who took the time to read this and anyone who read the original version of the story. I always envisioned this as a oneshot and I wanted to create visuals to go along with the story. Not only that but so many things have changed (with me, with one direction, with everything) since I first started writing this back in 2013 that it made sense for me to rework this story with the things I've felt and learned. This story will always be my baby and now I am finally happy with how it is and what it's called. So please let me know what you think about the story if you're reading it for the first time, or how you felt about the changes that have been made if you read it before.
> 
> I can also be found at [ziamnbeyond](http://ziamnbeyond.tumblr.com) on tumblr where I will post extras and things about the stories I'm writing/have written. Feel free to come talk to me or ask me questions.  
> Thanks xx


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